An  Experimental-Critical  Study  of 

the  Problem  of  Grading  and 

Promotion 

By  W.  Fkanklin  Jones,  Ph.D. 

Maryland  State  Normal  School, 
BaUimore,  Md. 


Reprinted  from  The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  V,  Nos.  3  and  4, 
May  and  June,  1911. 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC  PRESS 
Woodland  Ave.  &.  36th  St.        Philadelphia,  Pa. 


Submitted  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements 
for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  the  Graduate 
School  of  New  York  University. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGES 

Part  I.— The  Formal  Aspect  of  the  Problem 63-96 

Introduction 63 

The  Two  Principles  to  be  Conserved  in  Grading 63 

Study  No.  1,  Conducted  in  Illinois 64-75 

1.  Aim 64 

2.  Material 64 

3.  Method 65 

4.  Material  and  Methods  Illustrated 66-68 

5.  Table  of  Statistics 72-73 

6.  Explanation  of  Table 68-71 

7.  Significant  Facts  Revealed  by  the  Table 71 

8.  Comparison  of  Results  with  Those  of  Other  Investigators . .  .  71-75 
Criticisms  of  Systems  of  Grading  and  Promotion 75-96 

1.  The  Lockstep 75 

2.  Criticism  of  the  Lockstep 76-81 

3.  Summary  of  Criticisms  against  the  Lockstep 81 

4.  Systems  Aiming  to  Avoid  the  Defects  of  the  Lockstep 81-96 

A.  The  Double  Promotion  System 82 

B.  The  Double  Track  System 82 

C.  The  Group  System 84-86,    93-96 

a.  The  St.  Louis  Plan 84 

h.  The  Elizabeth  Plan 85 

c.  The  Homogeneous  Group 93 

The  Mannheim  System 95 

D.  The  Double  Tillage  System 86 

E.  The  Review  Back  System 87 

F.  The  Concentric  Work  System 88 

G.  The  Ungraded  Class,  or  Individual,  System 88 

a.  The  Pueblo  Plan 89 

b.  The  Batavia  Plan 89 

H.  The  Minimum  Work  System 91 

Summary  of  Study  No.  1 96 

Part  II. — ^The  Dynamic  Aspect  of  the  Problem  . ." 99-113 

The  Two  Essentials  in  Teaching 99 

The  Problem  of  Ideational  Types 100 

Evidence  of  Ideational  Types 101 

The  Problem  Leading  to  Study  No.  2 102 

Study  No.  2 102-113 

1.  Normal  School  Tests 102-105 

A.  The  Aim 102 

B.  Materials 103 

C.  Method 103 

D.  Table  of  Statistics 104-105 

2.  Eighth  Grade  Tests 106-113 

A.  The  Aim 106 

B.  Materials  and  Method 106-109 

C.  Table  of  Statistics 110-111 

D.  Criricism  of  Tests 111-112 

Statistics  Condensed  from  the  Two  Tables 112 

Conclusions  of  Study  No.  2 113 

Part  III. — Unity  of  Formal  and  Dynamic  Aspects  of  the  Problem 113-117 

1.  Student  Capacity  Defined 113 

2.  Basis  of  Classification  of  Students 113 

3.  Common  Errors  in  Grade  Teaching 114-115 

4.  Present  Day  Demands  in  Grading 115 

5.  General  Conclusions 116 

Bibliography 117-120 


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Reprinted    from 

The  Psychological  Clinic 

AN  EXPERIMENTAL-CKITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE 
PROBLEM  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTIOIsr. 

By  W.  Feanklin  Jones,  Ph.D., 
Head  of  Dept.  of  Psychology  and  Pedagogy,  Maryland  State  Nor- 
mal School,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Paet  I. — The  Formai.  Aspect  of  the  Problem. 
Introduction. 

The  old  ungraded  school,  whatever  else  may  be  said  about  it, 
had  one  splendid  feature  that  the  graded  school  has  never  attained ; 
namely,  its  instruction  was  individualistic.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  graded  school  has  come  to  us  as  an  administrative  necessity; 
its  economic  aspect  is  unmistakable,  and  it  has  made  possible  the 
education  of  the  masses.  Once  with  us,  we  were  quick  to  discern 
that  the  graded  school  was  a  mighty,  social  institution.  We  have 
seen  that  the  members  of  its  epitomized  society  render  valuable 
service  to  others  at  the  very  time  they  are  working  for  themselves ; 
that  its  recitation  is  a  veritable  mental  clearing  house  in  which 
values  are  exchanged,  each  sees  through  the  eyes  of  others,  and  the 
individual  is  taught  by  forty  teachers  instead  of  by  one.  The 
principle  of  highest  value  in  the  graded  school  is  thus  held  to  be 
the  social  principle;  and  this,  whatever  else  may  come  to  the 
school,  we  are  not  now  willing  to  sacrifice.  But  if,  while  con- 
serving the  social,  we  can  in  some  way  bring  back  the  valuable 
individualistic  principle  of  the  old,  ungraded  school,  then  we  shall 
have  realized,  perhaps,  the  ideal  on  that  formal  administrative 
side  which  we  call  grading  the  school. 

Within  this  problem  of  grading,  we  have  to  recognize  a  sub- 
problem.  The  school  grade  is  not  static;  but  the  moment  instruc- 
tions begins,  this  feebly  cohering  mass  begins  to  disintegrate,  one 
student  forging  ahead  and  another  lagging  behind.  This  sub- 
problem  which  we  have  to  meet  is  the  problem  of  re-adjustment; 
that  is,  promotion,  positive  and  negative. 

Students  of  educational  administration  have  been  at  work 
with  this  problem  of  grading  and  promotion ;  but  unfortunately  in 
this,  as  in  other  fields  of  education,  we  have  been  offered  an  array 

(63) 


64  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

of  opinions,  rather  than  facts.  We  have  had  but  few  investigations 
that  have  given  iis  facts,  and  these  it  seems  have  been  of  the  exten- 
sive rather  than  of  the  intensive  type. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  investigators  who  have  dealt  with 
the  different  aspects  of  the  problem  of  grading  and  promotion  have 
apparently  never  failed  to  find  that  the  more  deeply  one  enters 
into  the  study  of  this  problem,  the  more  one  is  aware  of  the  needs 
of  individual  and  intensive  studies.  Thus  Thomdike^  notes  that 
'^the  school  histories  of  individual  pupils  are  the  proper  data" 
for  measuring  the  unequal  lengths  of  the  different  grades ;  and  he 
points  out  several  "inadequacies"  in  his  own  extensive  study. 
Ayres^  notes  that  "grade  distribution  is  the  result  of  such  diverse 
elements,  that  without  the  most  careful  analysis,  conclusions  as  to 
any  of  these  elements  are  liable  to  go  astray." 

The  fact  is,  we  need  many  investigations  of  each  type  before 
we  can  hope  for  a  definite  solution  of  the  serious  problem  of 
grading  and  promotion.  We  shall  have  to  have  a  multitude  of 
facts  that  call  for  further  study.  With  no  thought  therefore  of 
being  able  to  settle  the  matter,  it  is  the  aim  in  the  present  study  to 
approach  the  subject  of  grading  and  promotion  from  the  intensive 
standpoint,  with  the  hope  of  being  able  to  throw  some  light  upon 
the  problem. 

Study  ISTo.  1. 
The  immediate  aim  of  this  study  may  be  stated  in  the  fomi 
of  three  questions : 

1.  What  portion  of  the  failures  to  carry  regular  school  work 
under  the  lockstep^  system  is  due  to  incapacity  ? 

2.  What  portion  of  the  elimination  from  school  under  this 
system  is  due  to  incapacity  ? 

3.  What  light  does  this  study  throw  upon  the  problem  of 
grading  and  promotion  ? 

Material. 
One  of  the  public  schools  under  my  supervision  in  Illinois 
presented  what  seemed  to  be  a  favorable  type  for  this  study.  The 
situation  was  not  too  complex.  There  were  eight  grades  in  the 
building,  averaging  a  little  less  than  forty  students  per  grade,^ 
the  largest  enrolment  in  any  grade  being  forty-six,  and  the  lowest, 
thirty-two.  Each  grade  was  carried  in  two  sections,  working 
rather  close  together   (lockstep).     The  eight  teachers  were  well 

^Thb  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  Til,  page  232. 
2THE  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  II,  page  133. 
•Proceedings  of  the  N.  E.  A.,  1903.  pp.  408-412. 
*Cf.  The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  206-212. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.  65 

acquainted  with  their  work,  no  one  of  them  having  served  less  than 
three  years  at  her  post  My  own  acquaintance  with  nearly  every 
family  represented  in  the  school,  was  not  my  least  encouragement. 
Einally,  every  child  of  school  age  in  the  district  was  in  attend- 
ance ;  for  this  city,  not  unlike  what  Comman^  says  of  Boston,  could 
"boast''  that  it  had  "a  seat  for  every  child  able  to  attend,"  and 
the  school  law  enforced  attendance. 

Method, 
In  the  choice   of  method,   I  met  two   apparently  opposing 
demands : 

1.  It  was  evident  that  in  assuming  to  pass  upon  a  student's 
capacity  to  do  the  required  work  under  given  conditions,  I  must 
have  something  more  than  "examinations."  I  must  come  into  close 
touch  with  him,  see  him  work,  converse  with  him,  pry  into  his 
mind  and  into  his  methods  of  study;  in  short,  I  must  make  an 
intensive  study  of  the  student. 

2.  I  could  not  make  an  adequately  intensive  study  of  all  the 
students  in  this  school,  yet  I  must  have  an  adequate  measure  of 
class  abilities  under  the  existing  conditions. 

The  plan  adopted  was  as  follows: 

The  investigation  covered  a  period  of  three  years.  As  soon 
as  work  was  fairly  under  way  in  the  fall,  the  classes  were  tested 
for  class  average  in  each  subject.  Work  was  assigned  at  the  begin- 
ning of  test  periods  and  the  class  closely  supervised  to  see  that  all 
"tried".  One  test  of  from  fifteen  to  thirty  minutes  was  given  in 
each  of  the  major  subjects  each  day.  The  total  number  of  class 
tests  ranged  from  five  to  twenty  per  subject  in  each  grade.  The 
object  of  these  class  tests  was  twofold: 

1.  To  find  the  average  ability  of  the  class  in  each  subject, 
working  under  the  usual  conditions. 

2.  To  locate  doubtful  students. 

As  soon  as  it  appeared  that  a  student  could  not  do  seventy-five 
per  cent  as  much  work  in  a  given  time  as  the  average  of  his  class, 
he  was  made  the  subject  of  special  study.  All  tests  were  on 
current  school  work.  In  the  private  tests,  the  student  was  first 
examined  to  see  if  his  "back  work"  was  sufficiently  sound  to 
warrant  his  classification.  If  so,  he  was  then  tested  on  the  work 
the  class  was  tested  on,  but  which  he  had  either  failed  in  or  had 
not  reached  in  the  class  test.  The  object  of  the  private  tests,  to 
repeat  in  part,  was  to  determine: 

1.  Classification. — ^Whether  or  not  the  student  was  in  the  best 
place  the  school  could  offer  him. 

■Thk  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  I,  p.  254. 


66  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

2.  Ability  to  maintain  rate  of  work  shown  in  class  tests. 

3.  Validity  of  often  meager  showing  made  in  class  tests. 

4.  Personal  characteristics  at  work. — Methods  of  attacking 
work,  grasp  of  subject,  industry,  persistence,  conservation  of  time, 
etc.  Similar  though  less  searching  tests  were  given  during  the 
year,  as  new  subjects  (^.  e.  division,  fractions,  etc.)  were  reached. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  object  was  to  test  the  stu- 
dent's ability  at  the  time  to  do  the  work  the  class  was  regularly 
engaged  in,  whatever  that  work  was,  under  the  usual  conditions  of 
study,  teaching,  and  so  on.  Since  it  is  impracticable  to  do  more 
than  indicate  the  nature  of  these  numerous  tests,  I  give  herewith 
one  test  in  each  of  the  school  subjects  (major).  These  tests  are 
picked  at  random,  except  as  noted  later. 

Test  in  Reading — First  Grade. 
'  (Class  of  18) 

Material  Used. — Story  of  the  fox,  pages  108-109,  in  the  first 
book  of  the  "Stepping  Stones  to  Literature"  series,  published  by 
Silver  Burdett  &  Co.  'No  one  in  the  class  had  ever  seen  the  lesson 
before. 

Instructions  to  Class. — "Study  it  as  you  usually  do  your 
reading  lesson.  As  soon  as  you  know  what  it  says,  close  the  book 
quietly  and  fold  your  hands."  (Time  was  recorded  for  each  stu- 
dent. Each  was  then  questioned  in  private  for  the  thought,  and 
remanded  if  necessary,  counting  additional  time.) 

Test  in  Arithmetic — Fourth   Grade. 
(Class  of  21) 

Material  Used. — Problems  on  page  111  of  Book  I,  Werner 
Arithmetic,  published  by  the  American  Book  Company. 

Instructions  to  Class. — "Take  the  problems  in  order,  and 
work  as  many  of  them  as  you  can  before  time  is  called.  Only 
those  which  you  get  right  will  be  counted."  (These  students  had 
been  taught  during  a  test  to  leave  problems  which  they  could  not 
work  out  without  losing  considerable  time.) 

(In  handling  problems  of  a  series  growing  gradually  more 
difficult,  the  plan  commonly  followed  was  that  of  having  the  stu- 
dents first  work  through  the  even-numbered  problems,  then  through 
the  odd  numbered.)     The  results  of  this  test  are  as  follows: 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.  67 

1  28  3    lY 

1  24  3   16 

1  21  2    14 

2  20  2 11 

3  19  1    2 

2 18 

Class  average,  17  problems. 
(This  test  was  not  picked  at  random,  but  selected  for  reasons 
shown  later.) 

Test  in  Grammar — Seventh  Grade. 
(15  students) 
Maternal. — Fifteen  typewritten  slips  of  paper  containing  ten 
sentences  each. 

Instructions  to  Class. — ^'Underscore  once  the  logical  subject, 
and  twice  the  logical  predicate,  in  each  of  the  ten  sentences.  Raise 
the  hand  when  finished." 

The  ten  sentences  were  as  follows: 

1.  The  old  man  was  often  in  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 

2.  The  book  of  which  you  spoke  is  not  to  be  found  in  the 
library. 

3.  He  did  not  understand  the  assignment. 

4.  The  train  which  was  expected  at  ten  o'clock  did  not  arrive 
till  eleven. 

5.  How  many  men  were  killed  in  the  battle  ? 

6.  Those  of  you  who  can  answer  my  question,  raise  the  hand 

7.  "Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor." 

8.  I  shall  probably  reach  home  before  dark. 

9.  Several  men  died  of  fever  in  the  ship. 

10.  Are  you  not  trying  to  do  your  work  well  ? 

(Time  recorded  for  each  student.  Rating  combined  accuracy 
and  time.) 

Test  in  Geography — Eighth  Grade. 
(15  students) 

Material. — Physical  and  relief  maps  of  Africa. 

Instructions  to  Class. — Recalling  the  prevailing  winds,  see 
how  many  facts  you  can  discover  that  go  to  show  why  the  IlTile, 
the  Sahara,  and  the  Congo  are  what  they  are  and  where  they  are. 

(This  class  had  done  similar  work  with  other  continents. 
Time  was  called  in  twenty  minutes,     ^o  one  had  finished.) 

Test  in  History — Fifth  Grade. 
(22  students) 
Material. — The  teacher  nan-ated  that  portion  of  the  story  of 
Joliet  and  Marquette  which  may  be  found  in  the  two  paragraphs 


68  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

extending  from  the  bottom  of  page  61  to  the  middle  of  page  63, 
in  McMurry's  "Pioneer  History  Stories  of  the  Mississippi  Valley/' 
published  by  Macmillan  Company. 

Questions. — The  students  were  then  asked  the  questions  given 
below.  The  answer  to  one  question  was  written  before  the  next 
question  was  asked.     N^o  other  time  limit. 

1.  What  time  of  the  year  did  Joliet  and  Marquette  reach  the 
Mississippi  ? 

2.  Did  they  go  up  or  down  the  Mississippi  ? 

3.  What  did  they  see  that  reminded  them  of  the  Indian  story  ? 

4.  What  did  they  see  on  the  prairies  ? 

5.  What  did  they  do  to  avoid  dangers  of  night  attacks  of  the 


6.  How  did  they  happen  to  find  the  Indian  village  ? 

7.  How  did  they  attract  the  attention  of  the  Indians  of  the 
village  ? 

8.  What  did  the  chief  Indians  first  do  in  receiving  the 
Frenchmen  ? 

9.  What  led  Joliet  and  Marquette  to  think  the  Indians  must 
be  friendly  ? 

10.  What  name  did  the  Indians  claim  for  their  tribe  ? 

11.  In  what  strange  way  did  the  Chief  honor  the  Frenchmen  ? 

12.  How  did  the  Frenchmen  learn  of  the  ''Great  Chief  ?" 

13.  In  what  strange  way  did  the  "Great  Chief"  receive  them  ? 

14.  How  were  the  Frenchmen  able  to  talk  with  the  Indians  ? 

15.  What  did  they  tell  the  "Great  Chief  ?" 

16.  What  reply  did  the  "Great  Chief  make  ? 

These  questions  were  framed  with  the  design  of  calling  out 
short,  definite  answers  that  would  be  either  right  or  wrong,  with 
as  little  mixing  of  right  and  wrong  as  possible. 

The  Table  of  Statistics. 

The  marks  recorded  in  the  table  that  follows  are  in  terms  of 
the  class  average.  To  illustrate,  the  last  student  in  the  arithmetic 
test  recorded  above,  worked  two  problems.  This  is  about  12  per 
cent  of  the  seventeen  problems  which  the  class  averaged.  This 
student's  record  for  this  test  is  thus  88  per  cent  below  the  class 
average,  that  is — 88. 

Any  student  who  in  the  class  tests  had  demonstrated  his 
ability  to  do  at  least  Y5  per  cent  as  much  acceptable  work  as  the 
class  averaged,  was  counted  competent  to  carry  that  subject  and 
he  was  not  held  for  private  tests.  Students  failing  to  do  this  75 
per  cent  were  held  for  private  work.     In  the  final  rating  for  ca- 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,  69 

pacity  to  carry  regular  work,  the  amount  of  additional  (outside) 
time  required  by  a  given  student  to  do  the  work  shown  by  the 
class  average,  was  calculated.  If  this  "extra  time"  exceeded  one- 
half  of  the  actual  school  study  periods  for  these  major  studies, 
then  the  student  was  regarded  incompetent  to  do  the  regular  work. 
(Divested  of  accessories,  these  actual  study  periods  in  school  footed 
up  two  and  a  half  hours,  approximately,  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades,  and  decreased  through  the  grades  to  less  than  an  hour  in 
the  lowest  primary  gTade.  Attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  the 
"outside"  study  thus  meant  over  an  hour  in  the  upper  grades; 
this,  too,  in  solid  study  at  the  probably  imusual  rate  shown  in  the 
class  tests.) 

The  time  absent  previous  to  elimination  is  recorded  in  each 
case  where  unavoidable  absence  was  the  cause  of  the  failure  to 
carry  work  and  meet  promotion  with  the  class.  Students  found 
competent,  but  unwilling  to  do  the  work,  are  marked  "indolent." 

In  dealing  with  the  difficult  question  of  actual  cause  of  elimi- 
nation, my  ovra  wide  acquaintance  with  the  patrons  seemed  to  be 
my  license.  I  had  no  method,  unless  it  was  that  of  pursuing  the 
case.  When  I  reached  a  point  where  the  actual  cause  seemed  no 
longer  a  matter  of  question,  I  ceased  pursuit.  In  order  to  illus- 
trate my  procedure,  I  will  deal  with  a  few  typical  cases  in  the 
higher  grades  Avliere  the  actual  cause  is  likely  to  be  more  carefully 
concealed. 

[N'umber  89  in  the  table  was  a  fourteen-year-old  girl.  The 
reason  she  gave  her  teacher  for  leaving  school  was,  "Too  much 
work  at  home."  This  case  was  first  attacked  through  the  girl's 
intimate  associates,  and  it  was  found  that  she  had  given  them  the 
same  reason.  The  girl's  father  was  next  approached.  He  indig- 
nantly denied  that  the  girl  was  worked  enough  at  home  to  inter- 
fere with  her  school  work,  and  he  stated  that  the  girl  had  pleaded 
for  permission  to  leave  school  because  she  could  not  keep  up  with 
her  class.  Fearing  that  the  father  might  be  in  error  as  to  a  reason- 
able quantity  of  work,  or  even  that  he  might  be  attempting  to 
deceive,  one  of  the  high  school  teachers  who  lived  near  this  family 
»ras  asked  to  call  at  the  home  and  cautiously  investigate.  This 
^as  done,  and  the  teacher  reported  that  there  was  no  overwork. 
L  I  lien  requested  the  girl  to  call  at  my  office,  and  when  she  came 
she  admitted  with  shame  that  she  had  not  given  the  teacher  the 
real  reason.  "I  didn't  want  my  teacher  and  everybody  to  know  I 
was  dumb,"  was  her  confession.  Since  our  records  justified  this 
reason,  I  ceased  pursuit. 

N'umber  97  was  a  sixteen-year-old  girl.     Her  father  came  to 


70  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

withdraw  her  from  attendance  because  ^'she  is  too  lazy  for  any  use 
in  school."  This  man  was  an  alderman,  high  spirited,  and  I  feared 
he  was  concealing  what  he  really  knew.  The  girl  had  come  all 
the  way  up  through  our  grades,  and  the  teachers  were  called  on  for 
opinions.  There  was  not  one  of  the  teachers  who  thought  the  girl 
actually  lazy,  but  the  consensus  of  opinion  was  that  she  was  only 
'^a  fair  worker  and  very  dull  in  arithmetic."  The  girl  was  then 
called  and  asked  for  a  reason.  She  hesitatingly  said,  ^'My  father 
says  I  am  too  lazy."  ''But  what  do  you  say  ?"  was  asked.  In 
sobs  and  in  fragments  came  the  answer,  ^'I  have  tried  hard  to  do 
my  work,  but  you  know  I  can't."  I  felt  that  I  did  know  this,  and 
I  gave  my  assent. 

Number  90  was  a  thirteen-year-old  boy,  native  born  but  of 
foreign  parentage.  He  had  been  a  good  worker  in  school  until 
the  last  year.  He  left  in  January,  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
week  of  school.  He  gave  "work"  as  his  reason  for  leaving.  The 
coincident  facts  were  noted  that  he  left  school  just  as  soon  as  the 
sixteen  weeks  school  law  at  that  time  permitted,  and  that  he  would 
be  fourteen  before  the  beginning  of  another  school  year.  Our 
records  showed  that  this  was  the  third  instance  of  the  kind  in  this 
family.  The  boy  really  went  to  work  in  his  brother's  harness  shop, 
and  remained  at  work.  The  brother  stated  that  the  family  felt 
that  the  boy  knew  enough  to  enable  him  to  "make  his  way."  It 
was  thus  not  only  evident  that  the  boy  actually  left  school  to  go  to 
work,  but  also  that  this  knowledge  that  he  was  to  leave  was  the 
cause  of  his  failure  to  carry  his  school  work.  (This  case  coin- 
cides with  Falkner's^  findings  that  some  students  "anticipate  the 
fourteenth  birthday. ' ' ) 

Under  the  heading,  "Reasons  for  failure,"  in  the  table,  are 
given  reasons  other  than  that  of  incapacity.  Records  of  students 
whose  failures  were  due  to  absence,  are  not  given,  since  they  would 
only  complicate  the  records  needed.  The  list  contains  the  names 
of  the  entire  number  of  students  who  failed  to  carry  school  work 
during  one  or  more  of  the  three  years  covered  by  the  investigation. 

Absence  that  could  well  have  been  avoided  is  marked  by  the 
abbreviation  "Av."  The  number  after  the  word  "Absence"  indi- 
cates the  approximate  number  of  weeks.  Ages  in  all  cases  are 
computed  up  to  the  first  of  January  of  the  school  year  in  which 
the  failure  occurred. 

(Since  the  number  of  eliminations  from  death  would  not  here 
alter  conclusions,  they  are  not  thrown  out.      Strange  though  it 

6THB  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC,  Vol.  II,  page  58. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,  71 

may  seem,  the  school  was  blamed  (by  the  girl's  father)  for  the 
case  of  child-marriage;  hence  the  case  is  allowed  to  stand.) 

All  told,  forty-nine  out  of  the  one  hundred  and  two  failures 
were  due  to  incapacity ;  and  twenty-seven  out  of  fifty-eight  alleged 
reasons  for  leaving  school  agreed  with  the  actual  facts. 

Significant  Facts  Revealed  hy  This  Table  of  Results. 

1.  About  one-half  of  the  failures  to  carry  work  in  this  school 
under  the  lockstep  system  were  due  to  incapacity  to  do  the  re- 
quired work.     (49  out  of  102.) 

2.  About  one-third  of  all  eliminations  were  due  to  incapacity 
to  do  the  work  under  existing  conditions.     (19  out  of  58.) 

3.  Over  one-half  of  all  eliminations  came  from  students  who 
had  failed  to  carry  their  work.     (34  out  of  58). 

4.  One  out  of  three  failing  students  left  school.  (34  out  of 
102.) 

5.  One  out  of  thirty-three  non-failing  students  left  school. 
(24  out  of  837.) 

6.  Alleged  reasons  for  leaving  school  were  about  as  often  false 
as  true.     (27  out  of  58.) 

Comparison  of  Results  with  Those  of  Other  Investigations. 

We  may  now  compare  the  results  of  this  study  with  those  of 
some  of  the  recent  investigations  of  the  extensive  types  (I  know 
of  no  similar  investigations  of  the  intensive  type ;  none,  at  least, 
have  been  published). 

Ayres^  found  that  on  the  average,  death  eliminates  each  year 
about  three-tenths  of  one  per  cent  of  the  students  enrolled  (27  out 
of  1000  in  eight  years).  My  tables  show  four-tenths  of  one  per 
cent  (4  out  of  an  average  enrolment  of  313  for  three  years).  The 
difference  is  slight,  but  the  enrolment  upon  which  my  figures  are 
based  is  too  small  to  offer  anything  more  than  a  mere  comparison 
in  this  respect.  Ayres  found  that  "for  each  1000  children  in  the 
first  grade,  no  more  than  871"  reach  the  eighth  grade.  My  study 
shows  803  out  of  1000  (122  enrolled  in  the  first  grade  and  98  in 
the  eighth).  [N'either  my  own  figures  nor  those  of  Ayres  are  quite 
reliable  here,  since  they  are  not  based  on  the  history  of  individual 
cases.  Ayres  found  that  one-fifth  of  the  students  enrolled  fail  to 
be  promoted,  Thorndike^  found  one-seventh,  and  my  figures  show 
one-ninth.  (102  out  of  939).  As  to  the  number  of  students  leaving 
school,  the  results  of  Ayres  and  of  Thomdike  are  hardly  compar- 
able with  my  own,  since  the  recent  compulsory  school  attendance 
law  of  Illinois  holds  the  child  in  school  until  he  is  sixteen  years 

'The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  II,  pp.  121-133. 
•The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  8. 


n 


TEE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 


•n 

o 

t 
^ 

Age. 

t  1 

(U       o 

M.2 

.2 

"S 

a 
< 

as 

§0 

Reasons  for 

failure  other 

than  incapacity. 

(Omissions  and 

'  'Defective ' '  mean 

incompetent.) 

i 

1^ 

1^ 

1 

2 
3 

'8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 

20 
21 
22 
23 
24 

30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 

36 

37 
38 
39 

S 

42 

48 

49 

50 
51 
52 
53 
54 
55 

56 

let 
grade 
6—7 
8—6 
6—6 
6—7 
6—5 
6—8 
7—6 
7—1 
6—5 
7—2 
7—1 
13—6 
6—8 
6—5 

2nd 
grade 
9—5 
7—7 
7—9 
8—0 
8—1 
7—5 
7—7 
14—1 
7—6 
7—5 

3rd 

grade 

8—5 

9—1 

8—9 

8—6 

8—8 

118-4 

8—7 

9—1 

11—1 

9—4 

10—2 

4th 

fl^^ 

9—5 

9—4 

10—1 

10—2 

13—4 

13—1 
9—5 
9—5 

10—1 
9—6 
9—8 
9—5 

5th 
grade 
12—7 

10—5 
10—6 
12—8 
11—1 
10—6 
13—4 

10—4 
10—9 
13—8 

10—9 
11—1 
10 — 6 

■-i28 

-40 

-38 

vous) 

Absence 4 

Absence 12 

Indolence. 

Absence  Av  . 
Absence 3 

Absence  Av. 

Withdraw 
Elim 

Elim 

EUm 

Elim 

Elim 

Elim 

Elim 

Withdrav 

Elim 

Death. 

Elim 

Elim 

Elim 

m  for  time. 
Work 

Too  old 

« 

■ 

Moved  away 
Eyes  bad  . . . 

Won't  study 
work. 

Knows 

enough . . . 
Work 

Ti  for  time. 

Try  St.  Al- 
bans   

Can't  get  al 
teache 

Needed   at 
home .... 

Moved  away 

4 
5 
6 

-5 
-60 

14 

-  7 
-41 

7 

-35 

-78 

-15 
-12 

4 
-38 

(Ner 

-50 
-37 
-34 

-21 
-26 
-23 

-34 
-43 
-51 

Incap. 

Absence  Av. 

Absence 8 

Absence 11 

Absence  Av. 
Mind  Wanderer. 
Absence 7 

15 
16 

-37 
-51 

-44 
-20 

-23 

-38 

17 
18 
19 

'  -35 

■■3 

-67' 
-43 

7 

-14 
■  -43 

■  -21' 

■  ■  12 

-16 
-18 
-  3 

-78 

■  -12 

-54' 
.  ^.  .^. 

-38 
-58 
-12 

-16 
'  -57' 

-26 
-30 

Incap. 

25 
26 
27 

?,8 

-11 

-32 

-30 

-48 
69 

-i2 

-55 

-30 
-18 
9 
-32 
-41 

"8 
-40 

-42 

-i9 

-42 

Mind  Wanderer. 

Absence  Av. 

Absence 5 

Absence 9 

Indolence. 
Defective. 

Absence 4 

Absence  Av 

Defective 

Indolence 

Absence 5 

Absence  Av. 
Absence  Av. 

Absence  Av 

?9 

-  2 
-37 

-15 
-40 

-  9 
-39 

-  6 
-35 

■  -is 

-64 
10 

-45 
-24 

-18 

-29 
-36 

4 

-47 
-14 

-15 

Incap. 
then  must 

-28 

-30 

80 

-45 

'^5 

-53 
-37 
-88* 
-32 

'  -19 

-22 
-25 

78 
-22 

-44 

-39 

-30 

56 

Inappre. 
Incap. 

43 
44 
45 
46 

Absence 14 

Defective. 
Absence 6 

Absence 9 

47 

-23 
-24 

-55 
-32 

-50 
-50 

-31 
-12 

Absence 7 

Indolence 

Indolence. 

Incap. 

-20 
-38 
-15 
-18 
-29 

■  ■  ■  3 
-26 

-8 

-28 
-35 

-50 
-38 

■  -14 
-26 

'  -55 

-19 
-32 
-20 
-41 
-22 

'  -12 
-31 

■  -13 

-  3 
-49 
-41 
-34 
-40 

-43 
-47 

-55 

57 

58 

Absence 6 

Indolence. 

•. 

59 
60 
61 

Absence 7 

Absence 8 

Indolence. 

Incap. 

62 
63 

10—8 
12—7 

4 
-51 

-24 
-29 

-10 
-34 

-32 
-14 

Incap.  ■■ 

*  Record  of  single  test. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION, 


73 


1 

1 

Age. 

1  § 

><  s 

f 

1 

§5 

Reasons  for 

failure  other 

than  incapacity 

(Omissions  and 

"Defective"  means 

incompetent.) 

1 

03 

a 

irk 

H 

h 

< 

< 

64 

65 
66 
67 
68 
69 
70 

76 

77 
78 
79 
80 
81 
82 

90 
91 
92 
93 
94 
95 
96 

6th 

S^ 

11—7 
13—1 
11—6 
13—7 
13—5 
14—1 
11—6 
13—1 
11—5 
11—8 
14—1 

7th 

fA 

12—6 

13—2 

12—8 

14—3 

12—8 

13—3 

12—7 

12—9 

13—2 

14—2 

12—6 

12 

14 

8th 
grade 
13—6 
13—8 
15—1 
13—5 
14—3 
13—6 
13—6 
16—1 
15 

13—5 
14—9 
13—8 
13—8 

-32 

-39 
6 

-30 

-i7 

-20 
-24 

-12 

-11 

-  8 
-40 
-41 
-24 
-32 

-33 

-ie 

-20 

11 
15 
-20 
-27 
-31 
-40 

"2 
-34 
-41 
-23 

-20 

-57 
-21 

-29 

St.\ 

-43 

-53 

38 

-54 
4 

-54 
1 

-10 

-69 

-si 

-72 
-35 

-10 
-29 
-43 
-37 
-26 
-14 

-83 
-39 
-28 
-56 

-38 

-22 
-17 

^5 
'^itus 
-23 

-34 
-304 

-  5 

-18 
-15 
-48 
-55 
-16 
-46 

-29 

-is 

-36 

-  6 
-12 
-57 
-31 
-37 
-57 

-2i 
-35 
-31 

-28 

-40 

... 
-33 
-13 

^i 

-^i 

-32 
-38 

-23 

-36 

-28 

-47 

13 

-  7 

-32 

-30 
-38 

12 
-31 
-24 
-43 
-43 
-26 

-37 
-33 
-•38 
-20 

-39 

-2i 
-20 

-29 

-52 

^6 
-24 

-14 

-43 

-24 

-30 
-23 
-16 

-24 

-36 
-40 

37 
-16 
-35 
-32 
-32 
-32 

-35 
-40 
-43 
-44 

Flim 

EUm 

Elim 

Elim 

Elim 

EUm 

Elim 

EUm 

EUm 

Elim 

EUm 

ExpeUed. 

EUm 

EUm 

EUm 

EUm 

EUm 

EUm 

EUm 

EUm 

EUm 

EUm 

Moved  av 
wamir 

Better  go  to 
work 

Work 

Work 

Work 

Work 

Work 

Can't  keep  up 

Won't  work  i 
something 

Work 

Work 

Too  lazy  . .  . 

Work 

Married. 

Too    much 
work  at  home 

Work 

Too  slow  . .  . 

Work 

Work 

Too  lazy  . .  . 
Can't  keep  up 

Too  slow  . .  . 

?^ay  without 

Absence 7 

Incap. 
Work. 

Indolence. 

Absence  Av 

Absence  Av 

Work. 
Work. 
Incap. 

71 

19. 

Absence 4 

Inci^. 

73 
74 
75 

Absence  Av. 

Incap. 

Indolence 

Indolence 

tt  school,  t 
else. 

Work, 

Incap. 

Indolence. 

Incap. 

83 
84 

Absence 17 

85 
86 
87 
88 
89 

Absence 5 

Absence  Av 

Absence 8 

Work. 

Indolence 

Indolence. 

Incj*. 

Work. 
Inc{4). 

Incap. 
W«i. 

97 

Absence 5 

Incap. 

98 

Incap. 

99 
100 

Incap. 

101 
102 

Absence  Av. 
Absence 4 

Unknowr 

CONDENSED  STATISTICS  FROM  THE  FOREGOING  TABLE. 
(with  additional  facts) 


Grade. 

Enrolment. 

Total. 

EUminated. 

Per  cent, 
eliminated. 

First  Year. 

Second  Year. 

Third  Year. 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 

36 
37 
39 
42 
41 
42 
33 
32 

^2 

42 
38 
42 
39 
45 
43 
32 
34 

315 

44 
40 
38 
46 

1? 

37 
32 

322 

122 
115 
119 
127 
126 
130 
102 
98 

939 

2 

2 

3 

5 

9 

10 

13 

14 

58 

1.6 
1.7 
25 
4.0 
7.1 
7.7 
12.8 
14.3 

6.2 

Year. 

EnroUed. 

Failures. 

Carried  and 
eUminated. 

Failed  and 
eUminated 

Total 
eUminated. 

EUminated 
for  "Incap." 

First 

Second 

Third 

302 
315 
322 

939 

30 
35 
37 

102 

7 

7 

10 

24 

10 
12 
12 

34 

17 
19 
22 

58 

5 
6 

8 

19 

Number  of  deaths,  4.     Marriages,  1. 


74  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

of  age  unless  released  after  fourteen  on  a  "school  and  age  certifi- 
cate." (This  stringent  law  went  into  effect  during  the  third  year 
of  my  Illinois  research,  and  the  anticipation  of  it  went  into  effect 
at  least  a  year  earlier.)  Ayres  found  that  ''irregular  attendance 
is  accompanied  by  low  percentage  of  promotions."  My  own  study 
fully  corroborates  this  finding,  and  I  also  found  that  failure  of 
promotion  is  almost  certain  to  be  followed  by  irregular  attendance. 
My  results  also  agree  with  Ayres'^  third  conclusion;  namely,  that 
"Low  percentage  of  promotion  is  a  potent  factor  in  bringing  about 
retardation;"  but  my  study  goes  farther  and  reveals  that  under 
the  lockstep  (still  the  prevailing  scheme  of  classification)  some- 
thing like  one-half  of  all  failures  to  carry  grade  may  be  attributed 
to  inability  to  do  the  required  work  under  ordinary  conditions. 
The  fourth  conclusion  reached  by  Ayres,  namely,  that  "retarda- 
tion results  in  elimination,"  is  also  found  true  in  my  study;  and 
my  figures  reveal  that  more  than  half  of  all  eliminations  under 
the  system  studied  were  of  students  who  failed  to  carry  their  work. 

My  table  of  statistics  shows  agreement  with  Thomdike's  con- 
tention that^^  "there  is  no  support  whatever  in  fact  for  the  doc- 
trine that  the  retarding  force  is  greater  in  the  early  than  in -the 
later  grades  (grade  one  being  left  out  of  the  question)."  The 
striking  fact  here  revealed  is  that  the  number  of  failures  is  so 
non-varying  throughout  the  eight  grades.  Failure  here  meant  re- 
tardation ;  and  the  per  cent  of  failures  throughout  the  eight  grades 
in  order  is  as  follows :  12  per  cent,  9  per  cent,  10  per  cent,  10  per 
cent,  12  per  cent,  9  per  cent,  14  per  cent,  13  per  cent.  The  highest 
percentages  of  retardation  (the  number  of  over  age  students  who 
"carried"  their  work  did  not  alter  the  relative  per  cents  given) 
are  thus  found  in  the  seventh,  eighth,  first  and  fifth  grades.  I 
believe  that  as  compulsory  attendance  laws  become  more  rigid,  we 
shall  find  no  reason  to  make  Thomdike's  exception  of  the  first 
grade,  and  this  too  in  spite  of  the  fact  that^^  "a  very  important 
cause  of  retardation  in  the  primary  grades  is  inadequate  and  ir- 
regular attendance,"  as  Johnson  found  in  his  Pennsylvania  studies. 

My  figures  agree  with  Thomdike's^^  findings  that  the  highest 
elimination  occurs  in  the  grammar  grades;  but  the  "greatest  in- 
crease" in  elimination  here  occurs  in  the  seventh  year,  thus  agree- 
ing with  Cornman,^^  and  not  in  the  sixth  or  the  last  grammar  grade, 
as  Thomdike  found.     It  is  a  significant  fact  that  investigations 

»TJ.   S.  Bur.  of  Ed.  Bui.  No.  4,  1907. 

ioThe  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  256. 

"The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  89-95. 

"U.  S.  Bur.  of  Ed.  Bui.  No.  4,  1907. 

"The  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  I,  p.  245. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,         75 

agree  in  showing  eliminations  clustering  chiefly  around  the  seventh 
year  (sixth,  seventh  and  eighth).  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  ex- 
planation is  to  be  found  in  retardation  plus  the  fourteenth  year 
school  law  limit. 

The  causes  of  eliminations  are  not  clear  in  Thomdike's  study ; 
in  fact  causes  are  difficult  to  find  in  studies  of  the  extensive  type, 
School  records  are  far  from  reliable  here,  and  we  need  many  inten- 
sive studies  upon  which  to  base  judgment.  Thorndike  is  evidently 
correct  in  his  belief  that  poverty,  lack  of  interest  in  school  work, 
and  intellectual  inability  are  important  causes.  My  own  study 
shows  that  alleged  reasons,  such  as  -  are  found  in  school  records, 
are  as  likely  to  be  false  as  true  (27  out  of  58  alleged  reasons  agreed 
with  the  actual)  ;  that  one  out  of  three  failing  students  left  school, 
and  that  over  one-half  of  all  eliminations  came  from  failures  to 
carry  school  work  (34  out  of  58).  I  found  also  that  even  before 
the  stringent  new  compulsory  school  attendance  law  went  into 
effect  in  Illinois,  eliminations  as  well  as  attempted  eliminations 
came  almost  entirely  from  students  near  the  fourteenth  year  age 
limit.  (The  old  law  in  Illinois  required  but  sixteen  weeks  attend- 
ance out  of  the  year;  and  this  was  not  hard  to  escape,  if  we  judge 
from  experience.)  This  agrees  with  Falkner's  conclusion  drawn 
from  a  review  of  Commands  study,  namely,  that  "dropping  out  of 
school  depends  more  upon  age  than  upon  the  degree  of  advance- 
ment in  school  studies."^* 

Criticism  of  Systems  of  Grading  and  Promotion. 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  experimental  study,  we  may  now 
make  a  critical  study  of  the  various  systems  of  grading  and  pro- 
motion which  have  gained  some  prominence  in  educational  lit- 
erature. 

First  comes  the  lockstep,  at  the  very  mention  of  which  the 
school  principal  seems  as  ready  to  fly  to  arms  as  the  savage  does 
when  his  fetich  is  picked  to  pieces.  But,  however  we  may  decry 
this  time-honored  system,  and  however  shrewdly  we  may  study  to 
find  a  new  name  for  our  minor  variations  of  this  primal  scheme  of 
grading,  the  fact  remains  that  the  lockstep  is  the  prevailing  system 
throughout  the  states. 

The  Lockstep  Characterized. 

The  lockstep  system  works  the  students  of  a  given  grade  along 
together.     If  the  grade  is  so  large  that  it  is  deemed  advisable  to 

i*Th»  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  II,  p.  58. 


Y6  >THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

divide  it  into  any  number  of  classes,  the  different  sections  still  do 
about  the  same  work  in  about  the  same  time.  The  characteristic 
feature  of  the  lockstep  is  that  the  students  of  a  given  grade  move 
forward  at  about  the  same  rate,  hence  the  term  ^'lockstep." 

Criticism  of  the  Lockstep, 

Human  beings  differ  enormously  in  mental  capabilities. 
What,  then,  shall  we  saj  of  the  lockstep,  which  proceeds  squarely 
on  the  assumption  that  students  may  do  about  the  same  quantity 
of  work  in  about  the  same  time  ?  It  harnesses  together  forty  stu- 
dents, and  with  little  respect  for  their  individual  differences,  hob- 
bles their  legs  of  progress  for  eight  years.  Briefly  told,  the  indi- 
vidual is  hardly  an  individual  under  this  system,  but  rather  one- 
fortieth  of  a  mass.     Under  the  lockstep  system — 

I.  The  individual  is  lost  in  the  mass. 

The  most  serious  aim  in  any  system  of  grading  should  be, 
to  group  together  students  who  need  similar  treatment,  whatever 
that  treatment  may  be.  One  asks,  "How  many  children  should  be 
given  to  a  teacher?''  The  answer  in  interrogative  form  is,  "How 
nearly  alike  from  the  pedagogic  standpoint  are  the  members  of  the 
group  or  groups  which  she  is  to  handle?"  This  is  the  first  and 
foremost  factor  in  settling  the  question  of  number.  ^^  Forty  stu- 
dents of  like  ability  are  more  easily  handled  than  twenty  students 
of  unlike  ability ;  and  the  chances  of  carrying  the  work  are  easily 
in  favor  of  a  student  in  the  better  classified  group. 

Attention  is  here  called  to  an  interesting  fact  revealed  by  the 
statistics  of  the  foregoing  study.  If  but  three-fourths  as  much 
work  had  been  required  of  the  forty-nine  students  who  failed  be- 
cause of  incapacity,  forty-two  (85.7  per  cent)  of  them  would  have 
apparently  been  able  to  carry  their  work.  I  do  not  wish  to  imply 
here  that  they  would  have  done  so,  but  only  that  in  so  far  as  their 
records  show,  they  could  have  been  expected  to  carry  their  work. 
(This  statement  was  fully  justified  by  the  number  of  these  students 
who  remained  in  this  school  after  the  grades  were  redivided  into 
two  groups  each,  on  the  basis  of  ability.)  Coming  directly  to  the 
point,  a  flexible  system  which,  without  giving  more  work  to  the 
teachers,  would  have  divided  each  of  the  eight  grades  in  this  school 
into  two  groups,  on  the  basis  of  ability,  could  have  saved  most  of 
these  failures,  by  working  the  less  able  students  at  a  rate  suited 
to  their  capacity.  This  fact  indicates  a  second  charge  against  the 
lockstep,  namely, — 

"See    Cornman.    "Size   of   Classes   and    School   Progress,"   The   PsTCHOLOGiCAfc 
Ci/ivic,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.   206-212. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,  77 

II.  It  does  not  classify  students  so  that  the  teaching  may  be 
readily  modified  to  fit  ability. 

Again,  the  forty-nine  students  recorded  as  "incompetent," 
gave  the  teachers  in  this  school  more  concern  than  all  the  other 
students  (939  students  in  all  enrolled  in  three  years)  combined. 
The  dull  students  are  the  teacher's  nightmare  under  this  system, 
and  she  is  bound  to  spend  an  over-proportionate  amount  of  time 
trying  to  keep  them  from  falling  behind,  ^ow,  education  should 
not  consist  mainly  in  coddling  the  weak,  but  rather  in  freeing  the 
strong;  and  any  system  of  classification  which  requires  of  the 
students  more  work  than  many  of  them  can  do  under  existing  con- 
ditions, is  sure  to  bind  the  teacher's  time  and  attention  upon  the 
weak  students.  Hence  arises  a  third  charge  against  the  lockstep 
system, — 

III.  It  puts  the  emphasis  upon  the  weak,  rather  than  upon 
the  strong. 

There  is  another  fact  related  to,  yet  quite  distinct  from,  the 
second  charge  mentioned,  which  quite  regularly  appeared  in  the 
tests  given  in  this  study.  It  may  be  noted  that  there  were  ten  stu- 
dents (about  half  of  the  class)  who  made  in  the  arithmetic  test  pre- 
viously recorded^^  an  average  of  about  twenty-one  problems.  It  is 
thus  evident  that  the  brighter  half  of  this  class  might  well  have 
done  more  work  in  arithmetic  than  the  amount  required  to  fit  the 
class  average.  As  it  has  already  been  shown  that  the  dulIVstudents 
are  usually  assigned  too  much  work,  so  now  we  are  confronted 
with  the  fact  that  the  bright  students  are  assigned  too  little  work. 
This  is  a  veritable  companion  of  the  lockstep  system;  hence  a 
fourth  charge  against  it: 

IV.  It  does  not  work  the  bright  students  up  to  their  mental 
capacity. 

Ketuming  now  to  the  arithmetic  test,  the  reader  may  wonder 
why  promotion  would  not  have  been  a  reasonable  suggestion  for 
improving  conditions  in  this  class.  The  fact  is,  the  boy  who  made 
the  highest  rank  in  this  test  was  a  strong  all-round  student.  He 
was  a  good  candidate  for  promotion,  but  the  "jump  of  a  year's 
work"  was  a  bugbear  to  him  and  to  his  parents.  Promotion  over 
a  large  part  of  a  year's  work  really  does  mean  a  serious  struggle, 
with  a  splendid  chance  of  losing  a  portion  of  the  intervening  work. 
Hence  a  fifth  charge  against  the  lockstep, — 

V.  It  does  not  make  promotion  feasible. 

Closely  interwoven  with  the  evidence  up  to  this  point  is  the 

"Bee  p.  66. 


IS  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

problem  of  adjusting  the  work  to  class  instruction.  The  teacher 
who  finds  her  class  made  up  of  students  of  widely  varying  abilities, 
is  at  one  time  tempted  to  adjust  the  work  to  the  class  average,  at 
another  time  to  the  mode,  again  to  the  median,  and  still  again  to 
the  duller  half  or  to  the  brighter  half,  but  never  is  she  fully 
satisfied  with  any  ''adjustment"  that  she  can  make;  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  not  an  adjustment.  Indeed,  this  study  revealed  the  fact 
that  in  dealing  with  heterogeneous  groups,  the  assignment  of  work 
may  actually  not  fit  a  single  individual;  but  instead,  the  class 
may  be  found  to  be  divided  into  two  groups,  one  on  each  side 
of  the  mark  aimed  at  in  making  the  assignment.  The  point  to 
be  noted  here  is  that  the  lockstep  class  is  nearly  sure  to  present 
abilities  represented  by  a  broad  surface  of  frequency,  and  this 
means  poor  opportunity  to  make  well-adjusted  assignments.  Hence 
a  sixth  charge  against  the  lockstep, — 

VI.  It  does  not  facilitate  well-adjusted  assignments  of  work. 

There  is  still  another  fact,  distinct  yet  closely  related  to  the 
preceding  evidence,  to  which  attention  should  be  called;  namely, 
the  lockstep  formally  attempts  to  cast  all  students — the  bright,  the 
mediocre,  and  the  dull — in  the  same  mold.  Now,  the  school  is 
an  institution  whose  positive  duty  it  is  to  emphasize  individual 
inequalities.  ^''^''For  the  individual,  concentration  and  the  highest 
development  of  his  own  peculiar  faculty,  is  the  only  prudence. 
For  the  state,  it  is  variety,  not  uniformity,  of  intellectual  product, 
that  is  needful.  It  is  for  the  interest  of  society  to  make  the  most 
of  every  useful  gift  or  faculty  which  any  member  may  fortunately 
possess ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  main  advantages  of  fluent  and  mobile 
democratic  society  that  it  is  more  likely  than  any  other  society  to 
secure  the  fruition  of  individual  capacities".  ^^''The  ability  to 
discover  people's  capacities,  to  find  situations  where  they  can  be 
used  to  advantage,  and  then  give  the  individual  the  opportunity 
to  show  his  worth,  is  one  of  the  secrets  and  necessities  of  all  suc- 
cessful executive  work."  Measured  by  this  yardstick,  the  lock- 
step  system  falls  fearfully  short;  hence  a  seventh  charge  against 
it — 

YII.  It  fails  to  emphasize  individual  inequalities. 

Referring  again  to  the  statistics,  the  reader  may  note  that 
23.5  per  cent  of  the  failures  to  carry  work  were  due  to  unavoidable 
absence.  After  a  legitimate  absence  of  a  few  weeks,  the  student, 
weakened  by  sickness  perhaps,  returns  to  school,  only  to  find  his 

"Ex-President  Eliot,  of  Harvard  University 
"S.  C.  Parker,  Miami  University. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.  79 

grade  beyond  his  reach.  iTow  the  loss  of  a  grade  is  bad  enough, 
but  that  may  not  be  the  worst  of  it,  for  under  the  lockst^p  the 
student  who  loses  his  grade  formally  loses  a  year,  perhaps.  Sick- 
ness steals  a  few  weeks  from  his  schooling,  but  the  lockstep  system 
steals  the  remainder  of  a  year.  Thus  arises  an  eighth  charge 
against  the  lockstep, — 

VIII.  It  gives  inadequate  opportunity  to  regain  loss  due  to 
absence. 

We  come  now  to  the  question  of  what  responsibility  the  lock- 
step  has  in  the  matter  of  failures  to  carry  school  work,  and  this 
brings  up  the  most  serious  charge,  probably,  that  has  yet  arisen. 
The  statistics  of  my  study  reveal  the  fact  that  in  forty-nine  out 
of  one  hundred,  two  failures  to  carry  grade  work  were  due  to 
incapacity.  These  students  simply  could  not  do  the  amount  of 
work  that  their  fellows  were  doing  under  the  given  conditions.  It 
has  already  been  pointed  out  that  had  the  grades  of  this  school 
been  divided  each  into  two  sections  on  the  basis  of  ability,  then  a 
small  reduction  in  the  amount  of  work  required  of  the  weaker 
sections  would  have  made  it  possible  for  85.7  per  cent  of  the 
otherwise  incapable  students  to  carry  their  work.  (It  would 
also  have  been  advisable  then  to  increase  the  amount  of  work 
of  the  more  capable  sections.)  We  may  now  go  one  step  farther 
and  say  that,  whenever  it  is  found  expedient  to  divide  a  class 
into  sections,  the  division  should  be  made  on  the  basis  of  ability 
to  do  work;  and  that  there  should  be  just  as  many  divisions 
as  the  teaching  force  can  judiciously  permit  and  the  conditions 
require.  This  is  exactly  what  the  lockstep  does  not  do.  Instead, 
it  aims  to  keep  the  students  together,  thus  if  it  does  anything  at 
all  like  giving  the  stronger  portion  of  the  class  enough  work  to  do, 
or  even  aims  at  the  class  average,  it  fosters  failures  among  the  less 
competent  students.    Hence  a  ninth  charge  against  the  lockstep, — 

IX.  It  fosters  failures  among  the  less  capable  students, 
^ext   comes   up   the   fearful   question   of  elimination   from 

school.  The  foregoing  statistics  show  that  out  of  fifty-eight  cases 
of  elimination,  covering  a  period  of  three  years  in  the  given 
school,  nineteen  (33  per  cent)  left  school  because  they  could  not 
do  the  quantity  of  work  necessary  to  maintain  class  standing.  A 
very  large  part  of  this  elimination  might  have  been  obviated  by 
the  introduction  of  a  flexible  system  of  grading.  A  system,  such 
as  would  have  divided  each  grade  into  sections,  on  the  basis  of 
ability,  and  then  worked  each  of  the  sections  at  the  rate  indicated 
by  the  new  class  average  or  mode  or  median,  would  have  been 


80  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

better  for  both  sections,  and  at  the  same  time  it  might  have  saved 
something  like  four-fifths  of  the  forty-nine  hopeless  failures,  and 
it  would  have  saved  fourteen  (74  per  cent)  of  the  nineteen  elimina- 
tions due  to  incapacity.  Hence  arises  a  tenth  charge  against  the 
lockstep  system, — 

X.  It  is  responsible  for  much  elimination  from  school. 
Special  attention  is  now  called  to  two  students  (numbers  7 

and  44)  in  the  list,  who  were  victims  of  worry.  They  were  two 
girls,  with  so  generous  a  share  of  ambition  and  persistence  that 
they  could  not  leave  their  work  partly  done.  The  reader  may 
note  that  each  had  one  subject  in  which  she  was  apparently  ^'bom 
short" ;  yet  one  (number  44)  of  these  high-pitched  little  creatures 
was  actually  the  leader  of  her  class  in  all  subjects  except  the  fatal 
arithmetic.  Though  unquestionably  incompetent  to  do  the  amount 
of  work  required  of  her  class  in  this  subject  under  existing  condi- 
tions, it  was  discovered  in  her  first  private  test  that  her  habits  of 
study  in  this  branch  were  very  bad.  Everything  on  her  desk  had 
to  be  kept  in  just  such  a  position  or  she  became  nervous.  She 
spent  much  time  in  arranging  things ;  and  after  she  had  worked  a 
problem,  fearing  there  might  be  an  error,  she  went  over  the 
problem  again  and  again.  (This  child's  actual  ability  in  arith- 
metic was,  speaking  approximately,  something  like  sixty  per  cent 
of  the  class  average ;  that  is — 40 ;  but  owing  to  nervous  condition 
she  was  not  held  for  further  tests  in  arithmetic,  hence  definite 
grade  in  same  cannot  be  given.)  The  other  child  was  simply 
backward  in  her  reading,  and  became  nervous  through  worry  over 
her  difficulties.  Both  of  these  students  were  temporarily  with- 
drawn from  school  as  a  result  of  nervous  condition.  ITow,  in 
justice  to  the  despised  lockstep,  it  should  be  said  that  no  system  of 
classification  is  immune  to  cases  of  this  kind ;  yet  the  lockstep, 
above  all  others,  is  the  system  under  which  such  students  are  not 
able  to  work.  Hence  arises  an  eleventh  charge  against  the  lock- 
step, — 

XI.  It  easily  works  beyond  a  safe  limit  the  slow  but  persistent 
student  who  is  prone  to  worry. 

There  is  still  another  consideration  which  should  probably  be 
weighed  here.  ^^ Serious  arguments  are  now  and  then  put  forward 
for  cutting  down  the  elementary  course  of  study  to  six  years. 
Then,  too,  we  have  already  throv^n  out  portions  of  the  subject 
matter  which  we  are  now  pleased  to  call  '^obsolete."     The  fact  is, 

"Soldan,  "Shortening  the  Period  of  Elem.  Schooling,"  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  25. 
pp.  168-181 ;  Greenwood,  "Shortening  the  Time  in  the  Elem.  Schools,"  Ed.  Rev., 
Vol.   24,   pp.   384-390. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.  81 

there  is  a  strong  feeling  that  in  some  way  we  must  not  only  stem 
the  tide  of  the  eight-year  course,  which  has  been  stuffed  and 
"enriched'^  till  we  are  all  threatened  with  school  gout,  but  that  we 
must  actually  cut  down  the  eight  years  to  six  or  seven.  The 
several  hundred  tests  covered  by  this  study  clearly  indicated  that 
some  students  ought  to  complete  the  course  of  study  for  the  eight 
grades  in  less  than  eight  years,  while  others  should  and  some  will 
take  a  longer  time.  It  is  economic,  as  regards  both  time  and 
expense,  that  the  stronger  students  be  given  opportunities  to  com- 
plete work  as  fast  as  their  mental  growth  will  permit,  without 
going  beyond  the  point  of  diminishing  returns.  We  are  sadly  in 
need  of  facts  to  show  where  this  point  is  likely  to  be,  but  it  is  at 
least  safe  to  say  that  it  is  not  the  same  for  all  students.  Hence  a 
twelfth  charge  against  the  lockstep, — 

XII.  It   stands   in   the   way  of   shortening  the  elementary 
school  period  for  competent  students. 

Summary  of  Criticisms  against  the  LocJcstep. 

By  way  of  summary,  and  for  convenience  of  reference,  we 

have  the  following  twelve  indictments  against  the  lockstep  system : 

I.  It  loses  the  individual  in  the  mass. 

II.  It  does  not  classify  students  so  that  treatment  may  be 

readily  modified  to  fit  abilities. 

III.  It  puts  the  emphasis  upon  the  weak,  rather  than  upon  the 

strong. 
TV.  It  fails  to  work  the  strong  students  up  to  their  reasonable 
limits. 
V.  It  does  not  make  promotion  feasible. 
YI.  It  does  not  facilitate  well-adjusted  assignments  of  work. 
VII.  It  fails  to  emphasize  individual  inequalities. 
VIII.  It   gives   inadequate   opportunity   to    regain   loss   due   to 
absence. 
IX.  It  fosters  failures  among  the  less  capable  students,    f 

X.  It  is  responsible  for  much  elimination  from  school. 
XI.  It  easily  works  beyond  a  safe  limit,  the  slow  but  persistent 
student  who  is  given  to  worry. 
XII.  It  stands  in  the  way  of  shortening  the  elementary  school 
period  for  competent  students. 

Criticism  of  Systems  Aiming  to  Avoid  the  Defects  of  the  Lockstep. 

Without   exception,  the  numerous  systems  of  grading  and 
promotion  have  arisen  through  efforts  to  avoid  the  defects  of  the 


82  TEE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

lockstep  system.  There  are  so  many  of  these  systems  that  it  will 
be  found  expedient  to  classify  them  for  treatment  under  eight 
heads : 

1.  The  double  promotion  system. 

2.  The  double  track  system. 

3.  The  group  system. 

4.  The  double  tillage  system. 

5.  The  review  back  system. 

6.  The  concentric  work  system. 

7.  The  ungraded  class,  or  individual,  system. 

8.  The  minimum  work  system. 

The  Double  Promotion  System, 
The  double  promotion  system  represents  probably  the  first 
wide  movement  to  heal  lockstep  ailments.  It  grew  out  of  the 
feeling  that  the  old  annual  promotion  scheme  was  an  elevated  road 
system  with  too  few  stations;  and  it  set  to  work  to  double  the 
number.  No  system  perhaps  has  given  us  so  many  variations,  and 
for  simplicity  and  clearness  we  may  deal  here  with  that  typical 
form  which  admits  two  classes  a  year  in  the  lowest  primary  grade 
and  carries  them  along  through  the  grades  about  a  half  year  apart. 
Unless  some  further  movement  toward  flexibility  is  introduced, 
this  system  may  be  viewed  as  the  lockstep  with  the  unit  of  work 
reduced  to  the  half  year.  It  is  clearly  a  marked  improvement  over 
the  lockstep  with  the  full  year  unit  of  work;  the  most  commend- 
able feature  being  that  promotion,  either  positive  or  negative,  is 
much  facilitated  by  the  shorter  step.  The  fact  that  this  typical 
form  is  clearly  lockstep,  however,  with  each  of  the  twelve  indicts 
ments  holding  against  it,  though  most  of  them  with  diminished 
force,  has  led  to  many  complications  of  this  system  by  mingling 
with  it  some  ingredients  of  the  systems  yet  to  be  described. 

The  Double  Track  System, 
The  system  popularly  known  as  the  double  track  system  has 
been  in  successful  operation  in  a  few  schools  of  a  few  states  for  a 
number  of  years.  Cambridge,  Mass.,  may  be  taken  as  an  eastern 
type  of  this  system,  and  Portland,  Oregon,  as  a  western  type.  The 
difference  between  these  two  types  lies  mainly  in  the  fact  that  in 
Cambridge  the  plan  is  used  only  in  the  grammar  grades,  while  in 
^^ Portland  it  holds  throughout  the  grades.  In  other  respects  the 
two  types  may  well  be  considered  identical.    The  ^^ Cambridge  plan 

"Portland  City  School  Report.     (Any  recent  year.) 


"Cambridge,  "Annual  Report  of  the  School  Committee."     (Any  recent  year 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,  83 

is  outlined  in  the  city's  "Annual  Eeport  of  the  School  Committee" 
as  follows: 

"The  course  of  study  is  divided  in  two  ways:  (1)  into  six 
sections;  (2)  into  four  sections;  each  section  covering  a  year's 
work.  Pupils  taking  the  course  in  six  years  are  classified  in  six 
grades,  called  the  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  sgxenth,  eighth,  and  ninth 
grades.  Those  taking  it  in  four  years  are  classified  in  four  grades, 
called  graded  A,  B,  C,  and  D.  When  pupils  are  promoted  to  the 
grammar  schools  they  begin  the  first  year's  work  together.  After 
two  or  three  months  they  are  separated  into  two  divisions. 

"One  division  advances  -  more  rapidly  than  the  other,  and 
during  the  year  completes  one-fourth  of  the  ^vhole  course  of  study. 
The  other  division  completes  one-sixth  of  the  course. 

"During  the  second  year  the  pupils  in  grade  B  are  in  the  same 
room  with  the  sixth  grade.  At  the  beginning  of  the  year  they  are 
five  months  (one-half  the  school  year)  behind  those  in  the  sixth 
grade.  After  two  or  three  months,  grade  B  is  able  to  recite  with 
the  sixth  grade,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  both  divisions  have 
completed  one-half  the  course  of  study — the  one  in  two  years,  and 
the  other  in  three  years.  The  plan  for  the  last  half  of  the  course 
is  the  same  as  that  for  the  first  half,  the  grades  being  known  as 
the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  in  the  one  case,  and  as  C  and  D  in 
the  other. 

"There  are  also  two  ways  of  completing  the  course  in  five 
years:  |^1)  any  pupil  who  has  completed  one-half  the  course  in 
two  years  may,  at  the  end  of  that  time,  be  transferred  to  the 
seventh  grade,  and  finish  the  course  in  three  years;  (2)  any  pupil 
who  has  completed  one-half  the  course  in  three  years  may,  at  the 
end  of  that  time,  be  transferred  to  grade  C,  and  finish  the  course 
in  two  years.  In  both  cases  the  changes  can  be  made  without 
omitting  or  repeating  any  part  of  the  course." 

Dmgram  of  the  Double  Track  Scheme. 

1  2  3 

Grade  A  Grade  B  Grade  C  Grade  D 


1  »»»)))))) >    4  years 


2  »>}}»»»^ ■■ s^^^^^ >   5 

3  »)););»») ^^^ >  5 

^  ;))))»)))» — — >  6 


i \ \ 1 1 

Foiirth  Fifth  Sixth  Seventh        Eighth         Ninth 

grade  grade  grade  grade  grade  grade 

12  3  4  5 


84  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  double  track  system  aims  to  classify 
students  on  the  basis  of  ability,  and  then  to  move  the  unequally 
competent  classes  forward  at  rates  suited  to  the  different  abilities. 
Now,  whether  or  not  this  aim  is  well  carried  out,  it  recognizes  and 
attempts  to  proceed  on  the  only  sound  basis  for  classification; 
namely,  the  ability  to  do  work.  The  indictments  laid  against  the 
lockstep  grow  pale  before  this  system.  The  evils  pointed  out  by 
six  of  these  indictments  are  here  reduced  well-nigh  to  the  mini- 
mum ;  but  there  is  still  much  to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  removing 
charges  I,  II,  V,  VI,  YII,  and  VIII.  There  is  one  thing  which 
this  system  does  better  than  any  other  system  known  to  educa- 
tional literature, — it  takes  cognizance  of  the  meeting  points  of 
classes  moving  through  the  course  of  study  at  different  rates,  and 
definitely  plans  to  reclassify  while  on  this  common  ground.  Class 
disintegration  is  thus  relieved  at  the  zero  point  of  the  scale  of 
promotion.  Promotion  at  other  times  under  this  system  is  about 
as  feasible,  on  the  whole,  as  it  is  under  the  double  promotion 
scheme. 

The  argument  that  ^^"dull  students  should  have  a  few  bright 
minds  mingled  in  the  classes  with  them  in  order  to  afford  stimula- 
tion and  example,"  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  sound.  The  counter- 
claim that  bright  students  under  the  double  track  scheme  con- 
tinually find  their  way  into  the  slower  classes  through  promotion, 
is  equally  worthless.  Both  of  these  arguments  fail  to  recognize 
the  most  valid  principle  in  classification ;  namely^  the  principle  of 
homogeneity  of  groups.  There  is  one  vital  caution  that  must  go 
with  the  double  track  system,  and  that  caution  is:  See  that  no 
stigma  is  attached  to  the  "freight  train"  classes,  and  that  the 
clamor  for  the  privilege  of  "taking  the  express"  is  silenced  by  a 
judicious  hand. 

The  Group  System. 

•  In  the  group  system  we  again  meet  many  variations,  though 
all  may  be  conveniently  subsumed  under  the  three  types  that 
follow. 

The  St.  Louis  Plan. 

The  St.  Louis  plan  was  introduced  into  the  schools  of  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  by  Dr.  William  T.  Harris  (late  commissioner  of  edu- 
cation), as  long  ago  as  1872.  This  plan  divides  a  large  school  into 
something  like  thirty-two  classes,  representing  steps  of  about  one- 
fourth  a  year's  work  each,  from  the  first  grade  to  and  including 

2"'The  Cambridge  Experiment,"  N.  E.  A.  1894,  pp.  338,  342. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,  85 

the  eighth.  Work  is  laid  out  on  the  basis  of  the  average  class  as 
determined  by  experience.  Some  classes  do  more  than  this  amount, 
others  less;  but  there  is  no  artificial  time  limit.  The  work  of  a 
quarter  begins  at  any  time  of  the  year.  Promotion  to  the  high 
school  occurs  twice  a  year. 

Feasibility  of  promotion,  with  all  that  this  implies,  is  the 
strong  feature  of  this  plan.  It  is  twice  as  efficient  in  this  respect 
as  the  double  promotion  system.  Dr.  Harris  was  clearly  a  pioneer 
in  this  field,  and  long  ago  he  expressed  his  opinion  of  the  group 
system  as  follows : 

^^ "Thirty  classes  between  the  first  and  eighth  years  are  pos- 
sible in  the  large  schools  in  cities.  That  all  cities  do  not  avail 
themselves  of  this  possibility  is  one  of  the  most  serious  defects 
in  American  supervision." 

The  Elizabeth  Plan. 

The  ^*  Elizabeth  plan  was  introduced  and  successfully  operated 
for  a  number  of  years  in  the  schools  of  Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  by  Super- 
intendent William  J.  Shearer.  It  is  little  more  than  an  elabora- 
tion of  the  St.  Louis  plan.  It  made  from  thirty  to  sixty  grade 
divisions  below  the  high  school.  Each  division  advanced  just  as 
far  during  the  year  as  the  ability  of  the  students  enabled  them  to 
do  the  work  well.  There  was  no  set  amount  of  work,  and  no  time 
fixed  for  the  completion  of  the  course  of  study.  Pupils  worked  in 
small  classes  in  the  "essential''  branches  only. 

This  scheme  evidently  intensifies  all  the  commendable  fea- 
tures of  the  St.  Louis  plan,  and  puts  a  little  more  definite  emphasis 
upon  the  adjustment  of  the  quantity  of  work  to  the  ability  of  the 
students,  independent  of  time  limits,  for  completion  of  the  course 
of  study.  The  objection  may  be  raised  that  the  scheme  is  quite 
complicated,  and  that  it  means  so  much  machinery  that  (1)  it  is 
not  feasible  to  hand  it  over  to  a  successor  without  loss,  and  (2) 
there  is  likely  to  be  a  tendency  to  worship  the  machine.  In  spite 
of  these  objections,  however,  which  are  by  no  means  confined  to 
this  system,  we  must  not  fail  to  see  in  this  plan  an  admirable 
move  toward  reaching  the  ideal  of  efficiency  in  the  individual  by 
attempting  to  provide  for  the  students  largely  as  individuals,  with- 
out losing  the  social  principle. 

The  St.  Louis  and  the  Elizabeth  plans  both  lay  great  stress 
on  the  matter  of  promotions.  It  is  through  promotions  that  they 
aim  to  give  the  individual  special  opportunities  to  advance  as  fast 

""System  of  Grading  Pupils  in  St.  Louis,"  Ed.  Rev..  Vol.  8.  pp.  387-389. 
»*"The  Elizabeth  Plan  of  Grading,"  N.  E.  A.,  1898,  pp.  441-448. 


86  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

as  ability  permits.  This  they  do  by  making  a  short  step  from 
class  to  class.  Briefly  told,  their  aim  is  to  maintain  plastic 
groups.  This  aim  is  good;  yet  when  we  realize  that  promotion 
has  in  itself  no  educational  value  whatever,  and  that  under  these 
plans  promotion  can  hardly  be  accomplished  without  loss  in  the 
"jump",  we  must  concede  that  both  these  schemes  fall  short  of  an 
ideal  system  of  grading.  Just  what  this  lack  is,  may  best  be 
indicated  later,  in  the  treatment  of  the  homogeneous  group. 

The  Double  Tillage  System. 

The  double  tillage  system  is  a  I^ew  England  product.  It  was 
in  operation  in  the  grammar  grades  of  ^^Woburn,  Mass.,  for  a 
number  of  years  (1894-1904),  and  since  this  city  has  given  us  a 
typical  form  of  the  system,  it  will  serve  our  purpose  here.  (The 
plan  has  been  named  the  "double  promotion"  system,  but  this  name 
is  not  used  here  for  the  reason  that  it  is  now  misleading. ) 

By  way  of  introduction,  it  may  be  stated  that  the  primary 
department  in  Woburn  followed  the  plastic  group  scheme,  thus 
enabling  many  students  to  complete  the  three  years'  work  in  less 
than  the  usual  time.  Beginning  with  the  fourth  grade,  the  "essen- 
tial" features  of  each  year's  work  were  covered  during  the  first 
semester  of  each  year.  Students  who  "successfully"  accomplish 
this  work,  especially  in  language  and  in  arithmetic,  were  advanced 
to  the  next  higher  grade  at  the  semi-annual  promotion.  Bright 
students  could  thus  pass  through  two  grades  in  one  year.  During 
the  second  semester,  the  students  who  were  not  advanced  (this 
meant  the  main  body  of  the  class),  now  joined  by  the  influx  from 
the  next  lower  grade,  again  covered  the  ground  (hence  the  term 
"double  tillage")  which  they  had  hastily  gone  over  during  the  first 
half  of  the  year,  but  "in  greater  detail." 

There  is  little  to  commend  and  much  to  condemn  in  this 
system.  Clearly,  its  aim  is  to  dismiss  charges  mentioned  in  indict- 
ments III,  IV,  V,  and  XII,  against  the  lockstep.  This  it  does, 
but  only  by  going  to  a  fearful  extreme  that  puts  the  sin  on  the 
other  side.  It  may  be  noted  that,  carried  to  its  logical  conclusion, 
this  system  would  present  the  child  to  the  high  school  at  ten  years 
of  age.  It  may  be  advanced  as  all  but  proven  that  this  pace  must 
carry  the  child  beyond  the  point  of  diminishing  returns.  The 
aspect  of  superficiality  of  the  work  makes  one  tremble ;  the  teaching 
can  surely  not  be  other  than  mechanical,  and  the  rush  under  the 
burden  of  the  gouty  modem  curriculum  is   anything  but  com- 

=»"Grading  and  Promotion  of  Pupils,"  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  18,  pp.  231-245. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.  87 

mendable.  Then,  too,  the  second  time  over  the  ground,  in  spite  of 
any  theory  to  the  contrary,  is  bound  to  mean  pure  repetition  in 
the  main,  rather  than  work  in  ''greater  detail" ;  for  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  this  work  is  new  to  the  considerable  number  of  "bright 
students''  recently  promoted  to  the  classes.  The  system  is  inter- 
esting in  that  it  shows  what  a  desperate  attempt  has  been  seriously 
made  to  cure  lockstep  evils.  We  can  admire  the  motive,  if  not 
the  means  and  the  end. 

The  Review  Bach  System. 

Rather  closely  related  to  the  double  tillage  scheme,  is  the 
review  back  system  which  seems  to  have  found  its  most  comfortable 
home  in  Iowa.  LeMars,  in  this  state,  gives  us  a  good  type,  as 
follows : 

The  class  intervals  are  short,  ranging  from  six  to  eight  weeks 
in  the  primary  gi-ades,  and  from  eight  to  twelve  weeks  in  the 
grammar  grades.  At  ^^ ''suitable  and  varying  intervals",  each  class 
is  reviewed  back  to  meet  the  next  lower  class.  At  this  point,  all 
students  deemed  competent,  as  indicated  by  the  recommendation 
of  the  teachers  and  not  by  examination,  are  excused  from  review 
and  promoted  to  the  class  reviewing  to  meet  them.  The  rate  of 
progress  between  reviews  is  determined  by  the  abilities  of  the 
stronger  members  of  the  class,  since  the  others  are  soon  to  review. 

The  aim  of  this  system  is  strikingly  similar  to  that  of  the 
double  tillage  scheme,  though  it  may  be  far  better  worked  out. 
We  may  concede  that  it  removes  the  evils  mentioned  in  indictments 
III,  IV,  V,  VIII,  and  XII,  against  the  lockstep.  The  fact  that 
the  plan  provides  for  reviews  at  ^^ "suitable  and  varying  intervals", 
gives  us  a  rather  meager  basis  for  the  criticism  of  the  system  in 
general.  What  the  suitable  interval  is,  and  how  often  it  comes, 
are  vital  matters  to  be  dealt  with  as  specific  instances  arise.  The 
fact  that  the  intergrade  intervals  are  short,  may  mean  improvement 
over  the  double  tillage  scheme,  though  this  is  by  no  means  assured. 
(I  will  state  here  that  I  have  not  found  an  instance  in  which  the 
reviews  are  so  frequent  as  to  virtually  reproduce  the  weaknesses 
of  the  double  tillage  system.)  We  are  hardly  ready  to  condemn 
the  system,  however,  until  we  note  that  "the  rate  of  progress 
between  reviews  is  determined  by  the  abilities  of  the  stronger 
members  of  the  class" ;  but  here  we  see  the  double  tillage  evils 
with  the  time  limit  removed.  Experience  shows  that  the  less  the 
individual  abilities  vary  in  the  different  classes  under  this  system, 

="PrInce,  "Gradation  and  Promotion  of  Pupils,"  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  15,  p.  241. 


88  THE  P8YCH0L00IGAL  CLINIC. 

the  less  the  attendant  evils.    In  other  words,  we  have  the  paradox, 
— ^the  less  the  review  back  scheme  is  called  into  use,  the  better. 

The  Concentric  Work  System. 

The  ^^  concentric  work  system  has  been  well  worked  out  in  the 
schools  of  Santa  Barbara,  California.  The  plan  follows  the  group 
system  in  dividing  each  grade  into  three  groups.  A,  B,  and  C. 
These  groups  work  concentrically,  A  doing  the  work  more  inten- 
sively than  B,  and  B  more  intensively  than  C.  In  arithmetic,  by 
way  of  illustration,  the  C  section  works  on  the  more  simple  rela- 
tions, perhaps  holding  rather  closely  to  objective  work;  B  increases 
the  complexity  and  abstractness,  and  A  works  in  a  still  more 
advanced  way.  Promotion  is  from  section  to  section,  the  C  becom- 
ing B,  the  B  becoming  A,  and  A  in  turn  becoming  C  in  the  next 
higher  grade.  Promotion  normally  occurs  three  times  a  year. 
The  system  also  permits  individual  promotions,  under  the  usual 
group  system  facilities.  Promotion  is  based  on  the  teacher's  judg- 
ment. Individual  promotion  from  section  to  section  within  the 
room,  does  not  necessitate  the  usual  "skipping''  of  work,  but  it 
merely  places  the  student  in  a  class  where  he  may  attack  the  work 
in  a  more  comprehensive  way,  since  he  already  knows  the  "com- 
pass points  and  the  main  highways"  of  the  work. 

This  system  has  one  strong  feature  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
St.  Louis  plan,  but  in  other  respects  it  may  well  be  considered 
identical  with  that  plan,  with  the  number  of  groups  in  each  room 
reduced  from  four  to  three.  The  distinguishing  feature  referred 
to  is  to  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  concentric  scheme  of  work  is 
closely  related  to  the  spiral  method  of  attacking  subjects,  and 
promotion  within  a  grade,  therefore,  is  not  a  jump  into  strange 
subject  matter,  but  rather  a  shift  to  a  point  where  a  deeper  view 
of  familiar  subject  matter  is  possible.  Since  this  is  made  possible 
without  additional  machinery,  indeed  must  reduce  the  machinery 
or  else  cause  the  spiral  to  turn  too  often,  this  feature  is  clearly 
commendable. 

The  Ungraded  Class,  or  Individual,  System. 

In  the  so-called  ungraded  class,  or  individual,  system,  we 
again  meet  variety.  We  have  the  old  familiar  ungraded  school, 
with  its  multifold  classes ;  the  modem  ungraded  class  or  ungraded 
room,  which  may  be  considered  a  refuge  for  the  misfits  under  any 
system,  and  Mr.  Search,  in  his  "Ideal  School",  has  attempted  to 

'"Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  19,  p.  297. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.  89 

give  us  an  individual  system  based  on  the  laboratory  plan.  The 
Search  scheme  was  given  a  short  trial  in  ^^ Pueblo,  Colorado.  In 
this  scheme,  the  school  room  takes  on  the  laboratory,  rather  than 
the  class  room,  aspect.  The  social  principle  is  not  lost,  but  the 
class  recitation  reaches  almost  to  the  vanishing  point.  "Always 
busy  with  advance  work",  is  the  watchword  Mr.  Search  sets  up. 

Batavia,  'New  York,  gives  us  the  best  type  of  the  individual 
system  for  critical  purposes,  for  the  reason  that  its  plan  has  been 
worked  out  in  quite  definite  detail. 

The  Batavia  System. 

The  ^^Batavia  plan  aims  to  give  definite  place  to  individual 
instruction.  This  is  the  keynote.  In  each  of  the  larger  class 
rooms,  this  plan  puts  an  additional  teacher,  whose  function  it  is 
to  take  any  student  the  moment  he  begins  to  lose  ground,  and  bring 
him  up  through  individual  assistance.  It  is  assumed  that  this 
requires  the  development  of  a  technique  different  from  that  needed 
in  class  instruction,  for  two  reasons : 

1.  The  students  are  not  allowed  to  ask  for  aid,  but  the  teacher 
must  discover  their  weaknesses  and  take  the  initiative. 

2.  All  individual  instruction  must  be  given  by  the  develop- 
ment method,  thus  avoiding  t^o  much  help. 

While  the  "extra  teacher"  is  the  ideal  plan  in  this  scheme, 
this  is  not  demanded  in  the  smaller  rooms ;  indeed,  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  Batavia  class  rooms  have  but  a  single  teacher.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  the  distinctive  demand  is  that  definite  place  be 
given  to  individual  instruction.  This  is  made  possible  in  the  one- 
teacher  rooms  by  what  is  called  a  "doubly  alternating"  program. 
In  this  program,  each  alternate  recitation  period  is  given  over  to 
the  individual  instruction  of  the  weaker  members  of  the  class. 
The  individual  period  and  the  class  period  thus  alternate  in  each 
subject  of  the  program.  (First  alternation.)  Similarly,  the  indi- 
vidual period  in  one  subject  alternates  with  the  class  period  in  the 
next  subject  of  the  program.  (Second  alternation.)  Under  normal 
conditions,  therefore,  two  individual  periods  never  come  together. 
During  the  individual  period,  the  students  assisted  are  called  to 
the  te.acher's  desk  one  at  a  time,  while  others  work  independently 
at  their  desks.  Tests,  prepared  by  the  superintendent,  are  given  at 
the  close  of  each  term,  and  all  promotions  are  made  on  the  basis 
of  these  tests. 

This  system  strives  to  escape  the  charges  against  the  lockstep 

^Search,  "Individual  Teaching :  The  Pueblo  Plan."  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  7,  pp.  156-170 
»Bagley,   "Class-room  Management,"  pp.  214-224. 


90  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

mentioned  under  indictments  I  and  IX.  It  may  be  conceded  that 
it  quite  escapes  the  ninth  charge,  since  it  devotes  one-half  the 
teaching  effort  toward  avoiding  the  usual  failures.  It  escapes  the 
first  indictment  in  so  far  as  the  students  receive  individual  atten- 
tion.   It  also  meets  successfully  the  tenth  indictment. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  third  and  the  seventh  indictments 
hold  against  this  system  with  double  force,  and  the  fourth  is  lifted 
into  bold  relief.  Double  exertions  are  here  put  forth  in  the  attempt 
to  cast  students — weak,  mediocre,  and  strong — in  the  same  mold. 
No  one  could  criticise  this  plan  for  its  attempt  to  help  the  poor 
weak  student;  but  it  would  be  interesting  to  hear  the  argument 
for  placing  this  increased  stress  upon  the  weak,  rather  than  upon 
the  strong;  and  doubly  interesting  to  hear  the  alleged  reasons  for 
reducing  to  one-half,  in  the  one-teacher  rooms,  the  time  of  the 
teacher  to  which  the  bright  students  are  entitled.  This  is  clearly 
in  violation  of  the  principle  of  economy,  for  the  time  and  expense 
devoted  to  the  more  gifted  students  would  yield  far  greater  returns. 
We  are  altogether  too  easily  deceived  by  the  time-worn  argument 
that  the  gifted  student,  ''the  genius"  perhaps,  will  "get  along 
somehow  without  much  teaching."  The  fact  is,  the  gifted  Maud  S. 
and  the  brilliant  Dan  Patch  are  the  ones  who  need  the  closest 
attention  of  the  skilful  mechanic.  It  is  this  plug  that  economy 
first  abandons.  Then,  when  it  comes  to  reducing  the  number  of 
recitation  periods  in  the  smaller  rooms  to  one-half,  by  the  "doubly- 
alternating"  program  scheme,  and  giving  to  the  weaker  students 
the  time  and  attention  thus  wrested  from  the  brightest  members  we 
wonder  if  the  next  step  will  be  to  rule  the  bright  minds  out  of 
school  .privileges  entirely  in  so  far  as  the  guidance  of  the  teacher 
is  concerned.  Here  is  a  system  which  has  evidently  gone  to 
extremes  in  the  matter  of  favoring  the  dull  student.  It  clearly 
violates  the  principle  of  economy. 

It  may  be  noted  that  the  one-teacher  room  reveals  another 
weakness  in  this  scheme.  During  the  individual  periods,  the 
teacher  is  engaged  with  one  student  while  all  the  others  in  the 
room  are  supposed  to  be  "working  independently  at  their  seats". 
It  is  commonly  conceded  that  the  study  period  is  one  of  the  most 
serious  problems  confronting  us.  The  teacher  who  has  tried  the 
plan  of  spending  a  half  hour  instructing  students  singly  at  her 
desk,  with  forty  others  to  be  kept  "engaged  at  their  seats,"  will 
readily  conceive  the  difficulty  of  supplying  independent  work, 
under  such  conditions,  for  forty  students  of  widely  varying  abili- 
ties, to  say  nothing  of  the  problem  of  discipline. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.  91 

Finally,  the  Batavia  plan  expressly  states  that  all  tests  are 
prepared  by  the  superintendent,  that  they  are  given  at  the  close 
of  each  term,  and  that  all  promotions  are  made  on  the  basis  of 
these  tests.  The  stated  reasons  for  these  tests  are  (1)  to  check  the 
tendency  toward  "coaching",  and  (2)  to  avoid  the  pernicious  influ- 
ence of  "soft  pedagogy".  Xow,  were  these  tests  aimed  alone  at 
the  teacher ^s  work,  they  would  still  be  unjustifiable  as  a  means  of 
protecting  the  students  against  poor  teaching.  It  would  be  putting 
the  "burden"  upon  the  innocent.  The  tests  are  conceded  to  be 
used,  however,  as  a  basis  for  promotion.  Now  I  believe  we  have 
reached  the  time  when  we  are  ready  to  admit  that  the  teacher  who 
comes  into  intimate  daily  contact  with  pupils,  is  far  more  favorably 
situated  than  the  superintendent,  to  pass  sound  judgment  on  the 
matter  of  promotion.  We  have  followed  a  bad  tradition  too  long 
already.  A  few  examination  questions  can  best  give  but  a  poor 
insight.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  our  educative  processes  produce 
real  living  effects,  emotional,  volitional,  and  intellectual,  that 
cannot  be  measured  in  any  such  simple  and  formal  way.  Further- 
more, the  test  at  the  end  of  the  term  gives  us  not  only  the  familiar 
pernicious  cramming,  but  it  puts  too  great  strain  upon  the  child 
when  he  is  least  able  to  bear  it. 

The  Minimum  Work  System, 

The  minimum  work  system  has  been  worked  out  on  a  broad 
basis  in  Denver,  Colorado.  The  Denver  plan^^  maintains  the  half 
year  interval  in  the  grammar  and  the  high  school  grades,  but 
shorter  intervals  below  the  grammar  grades.  Promotion  periods 
are  not  fixed  in  the  primary  grades,  but  in  the  grammar  grades 
the  semi-annual  scheme  is  followed.  By  the  time  the  grammar 
grades  are  reached,  all  students  are  held  for  definite  minimum 
requirements.  Each  room  is  provided  with  supplementary  sets 
of  books  and  a  carefully  selected  reference  library  of  from  fifty 
to  seventy-five  volumes.  While  those  students  who  can  hardly 
accomplish  more  than  the  minimum  requirement  in  a  given  subject 
are  mastering  a  given  assignment  in  that  subject,  other  students 
who.  are  capable  of  doing  more  work,  yet  not  quite  suitable  for 
promotion,  are,  "by  a  process  of  natural  selection,  detaching  them- 
selves temporarily  from  the  class"  in  order  to  work  on  studies  in 
which  they  are  weak,  or  "for  broader  or  deeper  study  of  topics  by 
means  of  reference  books,  or  for  gathering  illustrative  material,  or 
for  following  some  line  of  interest  approved  by  the  teacher."  Those 

»Proc.  of  N.  E.  A.,  1898,  pp.  434-441. 


92  THE  PSY<J  HO  LOGICAL  CLINIC, 

who  are  thus  excused  are  liable  at  any  time  to  be  required  to  re- 
join the  class  ^'in  order  to  assist  others."  The  privilege  is  cancelled 
promptly  when  a  satisfactory  degree  of  proficiency  is  not  reached. 
A  few  experiences  of  this  kind  make  the  students  cautious,  and  the 
earlier  they  occur,  the  better.  ^'The  central  thought  in  the  system 
is  individual  responsibility". 

It  may  be  fairly  said  that  this  system,  more  than  any  other, 
must  look  to  the  teacher  for  its  value.  The  experienced  teacher 
readily  sees  what  this  ''personal  responsibility"  means.  We  have 
all  seen  teachers  who  could  make  a  beautiful  showing  with  this 
system;  we  have  seen  many  more  who  would  make  a  beautiful 
failure  out  of  it.  The  system  is  commendable  on  the  whole,  for 
it  reveals  an  admirable  attempt  to  rescue  the  individual  from  the 
mass ;  yet  withal,  it  is  dangerous,  more  constantly  so  than  the  one- 
teacher  Batavia  scheme,  since  every  student  will  be  excused  in  at 
least  one  study,  some  of  the  time.  A  student  who  could  not  be, 
would  be  unhappy  indeed. 

Beyond  the  fact  that  this  system  may  give  a  good  account  of 
its  efforts  to  remove  the  charges  mentioned  in  indictments  I  and 
VII,  it  is  claimed  that  under  this  plan  the  students  are  definitely 
trained  in  the  use  of  reference  materials ;  that  there  is  no  hurrying 
through  the  grades ;  that  it  evens  up  the  various  studies,  and  that 
it  enables  the  teachers  to  devote  time  to  the  less  able  students  with- 
out robbing  others. 

The  claim  that  the  system  definitely  plans  to  train  the  stu- 
dents in  the  use  of  reference  materials,  is  to  be  conceded  unequally 
true,  and  decreasing  in  proportion  to  the  scholarship.  The  "no 
hurrying  through  the  grades"  claim  is  to  be  granted,  but  this  not 
only  may  become  a  negative  weakness,  but  it  certainly  tightens  the 
grip  of  indictment  XII.  The  claim  that  it  "evens  up  the  various 
studies"  is  clearly  true,  and  this  lifts  into  beautiful  prominence  the 
law  of  multiple  subjects  which  is  given  later  in  the  treatment  of 
the  homogeneous  group  system.  The  claim  that  it  enables  the 
teacher  to  devote  more  time  to  the  less  able  students  without 
robbing  others,  is  a  doubtful  half-truth.  The  principle  of  economy 
is  more  than  likely  to  creep  in  here  as  in  the  Batavia  scheme. 

For  the  sake  of  emphasis,  it  may  be  repeated  in  part  that  the 
strong  feature  of  this  system  is  the  definite  aim  to  reach  the  indi- 
vidual, and  the  best  means  of  working  out  this  aim  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  privilege  offered  the  student  to  follow  out  "some  line  of 
interest  approved  by  the  teacher".  Under  skilful  management  this 
may  become  an  invaluable  means  of  cultivating  the  spirit  of  "self- 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.  93 

direction,  self-initiative,  self-realization,  self-perfection,  and  self- 
assertion'',  which  Miinsterberg  finds  at  the  basis  of  American 
success. 

The  Homogeneous  Group  System. 

There  are  two  principles  which  must  underlie  the  ideal  system 
of  grading  and  promotion,  whatever  that  system  may  be: 

1.  The  individuals  of  the  grade  are  to  be  socialized. 

2.  The  instruction  of  the  grade  is  to  be  individualized. 
How  now  are  these  apparently  contradictory  requirements  to  be 
realized  ?  Were  it  possible  to  bring  together  a  group  of  children 
exactly  alike  from  the  educational  standpoint,  it  would  seem  that 
our  problem  had  found  a  solution;  for  we  could  then  realize  our 
social  principle  and  yet  have  the  instruction  individualized,  since 
method  and  material  adapted  to  one  would  be  likewise  adapted 
to  all.  Such  a  group,  however,  is  not  at  hand.  It  could  afford  a 
very  poor  training  if  it  were.  Xowhere  in  society  do  we  find 
people  exactly  alike,  and  if  we  could  find  such  similarity  it  would 
be  a  poor,  monotonous  society,  lacking  the  wholesome  stimulus 
which  comes  from  diversity.  It  is  the  diversified  society  in  which 
the  individual  should  be  trained;  and  fortunately,  nature  has 
given  us  nothing  else  for  our  schools.  The  best  training  is  possible 
only  in  a  society  made  up  of  persons  sufficiently  alike  to  enable 
them  to  understand  and  to  sympathize  one  with  another  and  to 
work  together  for  their  common  good,  yet  sufficiently  unlike  to 
reveal  the  advantages  and  the  needs  of  so  working  together.  Our 
problem  of  grading  and  promotion,  then,  is  that  of  selecting  from 
a  highly  diversified  society,  groups  of  children  sufficiently  alike 
to  be  similarly  treated.  We  want  them  just  as  much  alike  as  we 
can  get  them,  since  natural  conditions  are  such  that  there  is  not 
even  remote  danger  of  overdoing  this  selective  process.  Stated  in 
other  words,  the  school  grades  are  to  be  homogeneous  groups. 

Since  human  beings  are  so  specialized  in  abilities,  it  becomes 
a  far  more  different  process  to  select  a  group  of  children  suffi- 
ciently alike  in  abilities  in  all  the  usual  school  subjects.  This 
means  that  in  the  best  system  of  grading,  the  group  in  one  subject 
is  not  at  all  likely  to  be  individually  identical  with  the  group  in 
another  subject;  hence  the  large  school,  with  the  larger  field  of 
selection,  will  continue  to  have  its  advantages  in  grading  over  the 
smaller  school. 

Apropos  of  the  point  brought  out  in  the  last  paragraph,  there 
is  a  working  principle,  not  uncommon  in   experience,  which  is 


94  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

worth  formulation  and  definite  statement.     It  may  be  expressed 
as  follows: 

The  Law  of  Multiple  Subjects. 

An  increase  in  the  number  of  subjects  in  the  school  cur- 
riculum, tends  to  move  the  average  standing  of  an  individual 
toward  the  class  average. 

Stated  in  other  words,  student  abilities  commonly  vary  more 
in  one  subject  than  in  the  average  of  all  subjects.  This  means 
some  relief  for  the  system  using  the  one  class  for  all  subjects; 
since  with  many  subjects  under  this  system,  the  student's  average 
ability  is  likely  to  deviate  less  from  the  class  average  than  if  there 
were  but  one  subject. 

Furthermore,  this  variation  has  an  intrinsic  basis,  with  refer- 
ence both  to  the  individual  and  to  the  subjects ;  therefore,  whether 
the  problem  of  multiple  studies  is  viewed  as  a  matter  of  correlation 
or  of  differentiation,  the  law  of  multiple  subjects  remains  valid. 

Again,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  we  may  have  a  group  of  students 
equally  prepared  to  attack  any  given  subject  matter,  say  long 
division.  Such  a  group  we  may  say  is  statically  homogeneous. 
Some  of  them,  however,  may  be  competent  to  master  the  processes 
far  more  rapidly  than  others;  that  is,  the  group  may  not  be 
dynamically  homogeneous.  Now  it  is  dynamic  homogeneity  for 
which  we  are  to  look,  rather  than  static;  though  it  is  the  latter 
which  we  have  so  long  sought.  With  something  like  static  equality 
to  begin  with,  the  dynamically  equal  group  will  in  itself  take 
care  of  the  question  of  static  homogeneity,  while  such  a  group 
makes  it  possible  to  work  each  student  up  to  the  measure  of  his 
ability;  and  the  problem  of  individual  promotion  disappears  in 
the  degree  in  which  this  condition  is  reached.  All  this  serves  to 
show  (1)  that  the  matter  of  grading  is  far  less  simple  and  formal 
than  is  indicated  by  most  of  our  systems;  (2)  that  personal  ac- 
quaintance, with  adequate  insight  into  our  students,  is  a  matter  of 
far  more  vital  consequence  in  the  problem  of  grading  and  promo- 
tion than  any  machine  can  be,  and  (3)  that  the  familiar  "ten 
examination  questions"  sink  to  wretched  assumption  in  view  of 
such  a  standard. 

One  of  the  most  serious  obstacles  in  the  way  of  effective 
grading  and  promotion  is  found  in  the  ever  ready  belief  that 
there  is  "a  system"  which  will  fit  all  conditions.  The  fact  is,  there 
must  be  about  as  many  variations  in  a  system  as  there  are  schools 
to  use  that  system.  We  need  to  free  ourselves  from  the  notion  that 
there  is  a  ready-made  form  of  anything  that  can  fit  two  different 
things.    It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  that  no  two  schools 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,  95 

move  under  identical  conditions.  We  must  follow  the  example  of 
the  tailor  in  first  taking  a  general  view,  then  making  definite 
measurements,  but  not  forgetting  that  the  skill  is  shown  in  the 
fact  that  a  little  is  allowed  for  here,  and  a  trifle  is  taken  up  there, 
in  order  to  make  the  final  fit;  that  is,  in  order  to  make  the  best 
adjustment. 

The  school  with  an  enrolment  of  eight  hundred  students  in 
the  eight  grades,  and  the  usual  teaching  force,  may  effectively 
classify  its  students  into  homogeneous  groups  in  each  subject; 
while  the  school  with  three  hundred  students  may  find  its  best 
adjustment  in  groups  as  nearly  homogeneous  as  possible  with 
reference  to  all  the  major  subjects.  Any  system  of  grading  is 
bound  to  grow  less  effective  as  the  enrolment  becomes  small;  and 
in  the  small  school  the  only  permanent  rule  is  to  realize  the 
homonegeous  group  aim  as  far  as  possible  with  the  means  at  hand. 

Perhaps  Germany  has  outdone  us  in  the  matter  of  realizing  a 
system  of  grading  on  the  basis  of  dynamic  homogeneity.  Dr.  Sick- 
inger  devised  and  introduced  (1899)  at  Mannheim^^  a  system  that 
has  since  become  known  as  the  Mannheim  system.  It  is  now  used 
in  Berlin,  Leipsic,  and  other  important  cities  of  Germany.  The 
system  is  essentially  as  follows: 

The  Mannheim  System. 
Proceeding  squarely  on  the  principle  that  the  school  must 
deal  with  the  child  according  to  his  ability  and  development,  four 
(or  ^\e)  parallel  courses  are  offered ;  namely, — 

A,  an  eight  year  course  for  normal  pupils  to  cover  in  eight 
years. 

B,  a  five  or  six  year  course  for  retarded  or  dull  pupils  to  cover 
in  eight  years. 

C,  a  four  year  course  for  sickly  and  abnormal  students  to 
cover  in  eight  years. 

D,  an  eight  year  course  for  very  bright  students  to  cover  in 
three  or  four  years. 

To  these  four  courses  is  added  a  fifth,  E,  which  is  the  prepara- 
tory school  course  (for  students  planning  to  enter  the  Gymnasium, 
Real  Gymnasium,  or  Realschule,  and  who  have  completed  course 
D). 

Such  is  the  external  aspect  of  the  system.  When  we  come  to 
the  inner  aspect,  we  find  that  in  order  to  carry  out  the  plan  of  the 
organization,  the  number  of  students  per  teacher  is  limited  as 
follows : 

"Moses,    "Die    Neuorganisation    der    Volksschule    in    Mannheim,"    Zeitschr.    fiir 
Schulgesundheitspflege,  XII,  1899. 


96  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

Under  Course  A,  40  students. 

Under  Course  B,  15  students. 

Under  Course  C,  no  limit. 

Under  Course  D,  40  students  (smaller  number  usually 
found). 

The  treatment  is  modified  to  suit  the  needs  of  the  groups, 
especial  care  being  taken  not  to  overtax  students  of  groups  B  and 
C.     The  most  experienced  teachers  are  appointed  to  group  C. 

It  may  be  noted  that  the  Mannheim  system  resembles  the 
double  track  system,  though  it  offers  four  distinct  tracks  (D  and  E 
combine  in  one),  with  less  shifting  back  and  forth.  It  undoubtedly 
represents  the  most  advanced  scheme  yet  operated  on  the  basis  of 
dynamic  homogeneity.  It  has  its  defects,  to  be  sure.  Classifica- 
tion is  by  grade,  not  by  subject;  hence  the  child  has  to  spend  most 
time  on  the  subject  in  which  he  is  least  competent,  and  he  gives  the 
least  time  to  the  subject  in  which  he  is  most  gifted.  He  must 
serve  his  time  in  each  subject.  Indeed  he  may  spend  more  time, 
but  there  is  no  way  to  shorten  the  time  of  a  given  subject  for  a 
given  individual  in  a  given  group.  The  gap  between  groups  A  and 
D  is  far  too  great ;  and  so  here  and  there  we  see  lockstep  symptoms 
creeping  in.  The  most  that  may  be  said  for  it  is  that  it  is  an 
advanced  step  in  the  right  direction. 

Summary, 

By  way  of  summary  it  may  be  said  (1)  that  we  have  reached 
a  point  in  school  administration  where  the  lockstep  system  of 
grading  and  promotion  is  no  longer  tenable;  (2)  that  the  numer- 
ous systems  which  have  arisen  in  the  hope  of  curing  lockstep  evils 
have  accomplished  much;  yet  with  full  recognition  that  there  are 
good  factors  in  all  of  these  systems,  it  is  still  very  evident  that  not 
only  do  most  of  them  tend  toward  machine-like  administration,  but 
that  none  of  them  gives  us  an  adequate  basis  for  conserving  both 
the  socialistic  and  individualistic  principles  which  the  present  edu- 
cational movement  demands;  (3)  that  these  demands  cannot  be 
met  in  any  simple,  ready-made  way;  but  (4)  that  they  should  be 
met  by  the  classification  of  students  into  groups  just  as  nearly 
homogeneous,  both  statically  and  dynamically,  as  the  teaching  force 
of  any  school  can  judiciously  permit;  and  (5)  that  promotion  and 
demotion  should  be  based  neither  wholly  nor  mainly  on  the  set 
examination,  but  rather  on  the  deliberative  judgment  of  those 
who  come  into  daily  living  touch  with  the  students. 


Part  II.     The  Dynamic  Aspect  of  the  Pboblem. 

In  the  preceding  part  of  this  paper  it  was  stated  that  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  capacity  of  the  student  is  the  vital  thing  in 
any  handling  of  the  problem  of  grading  and  promotion.  It  may 
also  be  said  that  this  is  the  vital  thing  in  any  teaching.  Given  a 
bit  of  subject  matter,  an  impersonal  experience,  which  is  to  be 
communicated  from  one  individual  to  another,  we  must  have  two 
conditions  fulfilled  before  the  aim  can  be  realized,  (1)  the  one 
who  is  to  receive  the  impersonal  experience  must  have  a  stock  of 
personal  experiences  adequate  to  give  meaning  to  the  subject 
matter;  and  (2)  the  impersonal  experience  must  be  presented  in 
such  a  way  as  to  call  forth  and  utilize  these  personal  experiences. 
Personal  acquaintance  with  the  student  must  therefore  reach  out 
in  two  directions,  (1)  the  teacher  must  know  what  personal 
experiences  the  child  has  which  she  can  utilize;  and  (2)  she  must 
know  how  to  present  any  given  bit  of  subject  matter  so  as  to  call 
forth  and  utilize  these  personal  experiences.  It  is  the  second  of 
these  two  essentials  with  which  we  are  now  to  deal. 

After  the  teacher  has  assured  herself  as  to  what  personal 
experiences  of  the  child  she  can  use  in  teaching  any  given  bit  of 
subject  matter,  her  next  serious  problem  is  that  of  determining 
how  to  present  the  subject  matter  so  as  to  get  the  best  response 
from  the  child.  Moreover,  since  we  are  engaged  in  class  teaching, 
the  teacher's  problem  is  actually  enlarged  to  the  still  more  serious 
task  of  presenting  the  given  subject  matter  so  as  to  extract  the 
best  responses  from  the  minds  of  a  group  of  students.  If  ono 
child  is  chiefly  auditory  in  his  stock  of  experiences  related  to  the 
given  subject  matter,  then  a  presentation  suited  to  an  auditory- 
response  is  more  likely  to  succeed  with  him.  So,  too,  a  visual 
presentation  favors  a  visual  response;  a  motor  presentation,  a 
motor  response ;  and  so  on.  A  knowledge  of  the  ideational  types 
of  school  children  is  therefore  a  matter  of  deep  concern  in  teaching ; 
and  a  study  of  the  relation  of  ideational  types  and  the  method  of 
presenting  subject  matter  may  throw  some  light  on  the  problem  of 
grading  and  promotion. 

The  Prohlem  of  Discovering  the  Ideational  Types  of  School 

Children. 
Many  psychologists  and  many  students^  of  education  have 
recently  been  busy  with  the  problem  of  ideational  types.  We  have 
made  some  progress  in  this  field,  especially  in  the  study  of  adult 
minds ;  but  we  may  as  well  frankly  admit  that  so  far  we  have 
found  no  reliable  means  of  determining  whether  a  child  is  really 

(99) 


100  TEE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

visual,  or  auditory,  or  motor-minded.     The  difl&culties  in  the  way 
when  we  attempt  to  study  the  child  mind  are  chiefly  as  follows : 

1.  Introspection  is  needed  to  save  us  from  all  sorts  of  errors, 
and  the  child  is  not  gifted  in  this  field.  Indeed,  we  have  found 
that  even  the  adult  student  of  psychology  needs  considerable 
training  in  introspection  before  he  can  give  us  reliable  data. 

2.  It  is  essentially  true  that  all  minds  are  mixed  types;  that 
is,  visual  in  reference  to  one  experience,  auditory  in  reference  to 
another,  kinaesthetic,  cutaneous,  olfactory,  gustatory,  and  organic, 
in  reference  to  others.  Then  there  are  the  compounded  reactions : 
auditory-motor,  visual-motor,  and  so  on;  and  the  differentiated 
forms,  visual-verbal,  visual-concrete,  speech-motor,  eye-motor,  hand- 
motor,  and  so  on. 

3.  Any  given  mind  is  likely  to  change  in  its  type  of  response 
to  a  given  stimulus  as  experience  widens.  As  the  child  develops, 
the  visual-concrete  is  probably  ever  ready  to  become  visual-verbal, 
hand-motor  imagery  comes  in,  and  so  on.  The  adolescent  mind 
is  probably  a  shifting  and  variable  quantity  in  its  ideational 
responses. 

In  the  face  of  all  these  manifold  responses,  our  objective  tests 
have  failed,  and  we  are  beginning  to  realize  that  objective  tests 
without  introspective  details  can  hardly  reveal  mental  types.  It 
is  the  old  lesson  on  objective  evidence  learned  over  again.  Then, 
since  reliable  introspection  requires  a  degree  both  of  attention  and 
of  analysis  that  is  not  found  in  the  child,  we  can  see  the  justifica- 
tion for  the  statement  that  so  far  at  least,  our  means  of  penetrating 
the  child  mind  are  very  questionable  cues  to  ideational  types. 

What  is  the  Evidence  of  Ideational  Types? 

There  is  another  difficulty  that  meets  us  here,  namely,  we  are 
not  agreed  as  to  what  evidence  we  shall  say  reveals  the  ideational 
type.  Shall  we  say  that  the  mind's  reaction  to  an  immediately 
present  stimulus  is  the  evidence?  Or,  rejecting  this  primary 
response,  shall  we  accept  as  evidence  the  response  which  the  mind 
makes  when  it  is  freed  from  the  immediate  spell  of  the  stimulus  ? 
In  other  words,  shall  we  classify  according  to  the  primary  or  the 
secondary  response  ?  The  two  by  no  means  necessarily  agree,  as 
may  be  seen  by  the  following  tests  with  trained  introspectionists : 

The  German  word  "Anziehung"  was  pronounced  aloud  by 
the  experimenter,  then  the  subjects  (trained  introspectionists) 
counted  aloud  to  twenty  (distraction  method),  and  then  wrote  the 
word  as  they  understood  it. 


^Perhaps    the    most    active    student    in    this    field    at    present    Is   Colvin.      See 
bibliography. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,       101 

Introspection  of  first  subject. — "(1)  My  primary  response 
was  wholly  auditory.  I  heard  the  word  'Anziehung^,  and  the  voice 
of  the  speaker  rang  in  my  ears.  (2)  My  secondary  response  was 
wholly  visual.  The  moment  I  started  to  write  the  word  the  visual 
image  of  it  flashed  into  my  mind ;  and  I  could  see  the  word  almost 
as  distinctly  before  I  wrote  it  as  after."  (This  subject  had 
acquired  German  from  books,  and  could  not  speak  it  freely.) 

Introspection  of  second  subject. — ''(1)  I  heard  the  sound  of 
a  strange  word,  and  found  my  vocal  organs  trying  to  reproduce  it. 
No  visual  image  whatever.  (2)  After  counting  and  starting  to 
write,  I  saw  the  word  in  my  mind  and  I  visualized  it  before  and 
during  the  writing.  Purely  visual."  (This  subject  was  known 
to  be  visual  in  German. ) 

Introspection  of  third  subject. — "(1)  I  heard  a  combination 
of  syllables,  but  the  word  had  no  meaning  to  me.  I  saw  nothing; 
but  the  sound  lingered,  and  a  faint  inner  speech  was  at  work. 
(2)  The  first  syllable  was  reproduced  from  the  sound  which  still 
lingered  after  repeating  the  numbers.  So  much  purely  auditory. 
The  remaining  two  syllables  came  through  audition  and  voco- 
motor  imagery." 

Referring  now  to  the  first  subject,  shall  we  classify  him 
according  to  his  primary  response  ?  If  so,  he  is  auditory  in  this 
instance.  Shall  we  classify  him  on  the  basis  of  his  secondary 
response?  If  so,  he  is  visual.  As  to  the  second  subject,  he  is 
auditory-motor  if  classified  according  to  the  first  response,  and 
"purely  visual"  according  to  the  second.  The  third  subject  maj 
be  classified  on  the  basis  of  either  primary  or  secondary  response 
without  change. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  these  subjects  all  accepted  the 
classification  as  shown  by  the  secondary  response,  but  that  the  first 
two  refused  to  be  classified  on  the  basis  of  the  primary  response. 
It  is  not  to  the  present  purpose  to  try  to  settle  this  matter  here; 
bu  there  is  strong  evidence  that,  with  further  study,  we  shall  come 
to  accept  the  secondary  response  as  the  only  reliable  evidence  of 
mental  types.  When  the  individual  is  enslaved  by  the  immediate 
presence  of  the  stimulus,  he  is  hardly  free  to  reveal  himself.  ]N'ow, 
if  we  do  accept  the  secondary  response,  and  not  the  primary,  as 
the  real  cue  to  ideational  type,  it  is  evident  that  we  are  confronted 
with  a  new  difficulty  when  we  attempt  to  discover  the  types  of 
children.  At  present,  the  only  certain  statement  is  that  the 
problem  of  discovering  the  ideational  types  of  children  is  a  hard 
and  complicated  problem,  with  no  reliable  solution  at  hand. 

Believing,  as  it  seems  we  must,  that  the  child  mind  is  all  the 


102 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 


time  responding  in  manifold  ways,  we  can  at  least  allow  for  each 
and  for  all  types  in  presenting  subject  matter,  and  see  if  any 
effects  are  evident.  This  is,  in  part,  what  Lay,  Itschner,  Fuchs 
and  Haggenmiiller,^  and  others  have  done  in  their  studies  of  the 
spelling  problem. 

Study  No.  2. 
Proceeding  on  the  assumption  that  a  series  of  experiments, 
in  which  the  different  kinds  of  presentation,  visual,  auditory,  etc., 
are  controlled,  might  throw  some  light  of  student  capacity,  and 
hence  upon  the  problem  of  grading  and  promotion,  I  have  made 
two  series  of  experiments,  using  (1)  a  senior  class  of  normal 
school  students  (females),  already  familiar  with  experimental 
methods;  and  (2)  an  eighth  grade  whose  members  (males)  were 
believed  to  vary  widely  in  mental  abilities.  The  object  of  these' 
experiments  may  be  stated  in  the  form  of  two  questions : 

(1)  What  is  the  relation  of  the  kind  of  presentation  of  subject 
matter  to  student  capacity  ? 

(2)  What  light  does  the  study  throw  on  the  problem  of 
grading  and  promotion  ? 

1.,  Normal  School  Tests. 
Using  three-letter  nonsense  syllables,  four  series  of  tests 
were  made  on  a  class  of  sixty-four  normal  school  seniors,  all 
females,  ranging  from  eighteen  to  twenty-four  years  of  age.  Each 
series  comprised  three  tests  of  ten  nonsense  syllables  each.  A  new 
list  of  syllables  was  used  in  each  test.  The  syllables  were  known 
at  sight  by  the  students,  since  the  list  of  one  hundred  syllables 
from  which  they  were  selected  was  made  familiar  in  order  to  avoid 
complication  of  records  through  mis-spelling.  A  suggestive  portion 
of  the  list  is  given  below. 


mil 

tor 

bab 

sen 

lab 

hib 

nen 

ron 

han 

tab 

nop 

tiv 

lat 

cal 

bal 

gan 

lun 

nid 

Sep 

cam 

col 

ris 

zel 

nus 

ral 

mon 

wes 

mip 

ret 

pel 

pol 

nep 

bik 

nol 

rof 

num 

bar 

nup 

tam 

hon 

lus 

fac 

gog 

nad 

com 

bim 

rav 

ter 

mul 

rem 

The 

nonsense  syllables 

were  made  familiar  by  e: 

xposing 

*A11  these  are  summarized  in  Psy.  Rev.  Monograph,  No.  44,  1909,  pp.  131,  132. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION. 


whole  list,  alphabetically  arranged  on  the  blackboard,  for  several 
days.  The  students  knew  the  purpose,  and  they  were  allowed  to 
read  or  scribble  them  daily.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  the 
object  of  this  procedure  was  to  eliminate  the  spelling  test.  It  is 
a  fact  that  the  nonsense  syllable  test  as  usually  employed  is  largely 
a  spelling  test.  The  order  and  position  of  the  syllables  in  the 
tests  were  not  counted,  for  the  reason  that  a  test  in  learning  and 
immediate  memory  was  sought,  rather  than  a  test  of  "rote 
memory."^  (Meumann's*  system  of  marking  nonsense  syllables 
does  not  alter  the  results  of  these  tests.) 

The  first  three-test  series  was  made  with  visual  presentation. 
A  simultaneous  exposure  of  ten  seconds  was  made  from  a  black- 
board with  each  separate  list.  At  the  expiration  of  ten  seconds 
the  curtain  was  drawn  over  the  lists,  and  immediately  each  student 
wrote  the  syllables  she  remembered.  The  second  series  proceeded 
similarly  with  auditory  presentation,  each  list  being  read  by  the 
experimenter  in  ten  seconds.  The  third  series  was  presented 
(simultaneously)  on  the  blackboard,  and  the  syllables  were  rapidly 
written  by  the  students,  thus  combining  a  visual  and  a  motor 
presentation;  time  limit,  twenty  seconds.  The  fourth  series  com- 
bined an  auditory  and  a  motor  presentation,  each  syllable  being 
pronounced  by  the  experimenter  and  rapidly  written  by  the  stu- 
dents ;  time  limit  again  twenty  seconds.  Finally,  a  series  of  three 
tests  of  sixteen  syllables  each  was  given  by  a  four-fold  presentation, 
as  follows:  (1)  Seeing,  sixteen  seconds;  (2)  Hearing,  twenty- 
four  seconds  in  reading;  (3)  Reading  aloud,  twenty-four  seconds; 
(4)  Writing,  thirty-two  seconds.  One  presentation  here  was  imme- 
diately followed  by  the  next,  with  no  loss  of  time  between. 

The  final  writing  of  the  tests  was  never  hurried,  but  only  a 
reasonable  time  was  allowed.  A  short  breathing  spell  was  given 
after  each  test,  and  a  three-minute  recess  followed  each  series  of 
three  tests. 

A  summary  of  the  scores  is  given  below,  indicating  the  total 
number  of  syllables  written  by  all  the  students  in  each  test.  The 
order  and  position  of  syllables  were  not  counted. 


SUMMARY   OF   SCORES   REDUCED    TO    PER 

CENT   AVERAGES. 

Visual. 

Auditory. 

Visual 
and  Motor, 

Auditory 
and  Motor, 

Combined  Visual- 
Auditory-Motor, 

Group  1 
Group  2 
Group  3 

549  =  70% 
353  =  56 
279  =  55 

461  =  60% 
442  =  70 
296  =  58 

603  =  77% 
403  =  64 
378  =  74 

518  =  66% 
480  =  76 
397  =  78 

863  =  69.15% 
693  =  68.75 
551  =  67.5 

•Whipple's  Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests,  page  356, 
*DIe  Experimentelle  F'adagogik,  I,  1905,  p,  67. 


104 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 


TIME    ALLOWED. 

1.  Visual  presentation 10  syllables,  10  seconds- 

2.  Auditory  presentation 10        "  10 

3.  Visual  and  Motor  presentation 10        "  20 

4.  Auditory  and  Motor  presentation 10        "  20 

5.  Combined  presentation 16        "  96 

a.  Visual 16 

b.  Auditory 24 

c.  Concert  reading 24 

d.  Rapid  writing 32 


In  compiling  the  results  the  students  were  grouped  so  as  to 
make  handling  convenient.  It  may  be  remarked  that  the  first 
group  of  students  (26)  gave  best  results,  roughly  speaking,  wher- 
ever visual  presentation  came  in;  that  the  second  group  (21 
students)  reached  best  results  wherever  auditory  presentation  was 
made,  while  the  third  group  (17  students)  showed  best  results 
wherever  motor  presentation  came  in.  In  the  last  series  of  the 
tests,  no  attempt  is  made  to  distinguish  the  hand  motor  from  the 
speech  motor  types.  Furthermore,  no  effort  was  made  during  the 
tests  to  inhibit  silent  movements  of  tongue,  lips,  and  so  on,  for  the 
reason  that  (1)  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  keep  them  out 
entirely,  and  (2)  no  distractions  were  welcome  here. 

Many  facts  of  interest  are  revealed  by  this  experiment,  but 
for  our  present  purpose  the  one  significant  fact  is  that  these  three 
groups  of  students  (we  may  roughly  call  them  optiles,  audiles,  and 
motiles)  vary  widely  m  abilities  wherever  a  single  form  of  pres- 
entation is  given,  less  widely  when  a  two-fold  form  is  used,  and 
when  the  presentation  covers  all  three  forms  (visual,  auditory, 
and  motor),  the  variations,  both  as  to  individuals  and  to  groups, 
are  reduced  to  narrow  limits.  This  may  be  made  clear  by  the 
following : 


TABLE    OF    VARIATIONS. 


Form  of  Presentation. 

Visual 

Auditory 

Visual  and  motor 

Auditory  and  motor 

Visual,  auditory  and  motor 


Low 

High 

Total 

Mean 

Per  cent 

Score. 

Score. 

Average. 

Variation. 

Variation. 

13 

24 

18.45 

2.43 

13.12 

12 

24 

18.73 

1.82 

9.72 

16 

27 

21.63 

1.75 

8.09 

15 

26 

21.80 

1.73 

7.94 

25 

39 

32.92 

2.60 

7.90 

The  three  groups  show  the  following  variations  under  the 
different  forms  of  presentation  (see  table  on  preceding  page)  : 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,       105 


GROUP   VARIATIONS. 


Average  Score  (Per  cent). 

Group  1. 

Group  2. 

Group  3. 

Visual  DresentatioD 

70 
60 

65 

77 
66 

71.5 

69.15 

56 
70 

64 
75 

70 

68.75 

55 
58 

56.5 

74 

78 

76 
67.52 

Audit orv  Dresentation 

A'VAmtrP  fr»T  fsiniylp  TnTTin 

Visual  and  motor  presentation 

Auditory  and  motor  presentation 

Averacre  for  twofold  form 

Threefold  form  of  presentation 

A  well  recognized  fact  now  suggests  itself;  namely,  that 
fourteen  years  of  school  work  could  not  fail  to  eliminate  a  large 
per  cent  of  the  unfit,  hence  the  narrow  variations  shown  by  these 
figures  for  normal  school  seniors  may  not  typify  the  ordinary 
school  grade. 

My  next  purpose  was  therefore  to  perform  a  similar  set  of 
experiments  on  a  common  school  grade,  and  if  possible  to  find  one 
of  wide  variation,  so  as  to  see  what  effects  the  kind  of  presentation 
of  subject  matter  could  reveal  with  such  a  grade.  I  selected  an 
"Eighth  Grade  A"  in  one  of  the  large  schools  in  New  York  City. 
The  grade  was  made  up  of  forty  boys  (the  preceding  tests  were 
with  females,  and  females  are  commonly  believed  to  vary  less 
widely  than  males)  who  had  met  as  wide  a  range  of  vicissitudes 
in  school  as  any  one  would  care  to  think  of,  and  who  were  believed 
by  their  teachers  to  "vary  from  considerable  ability  to  hopeless- 
ness". The  series  of  tests  made  with  these  students  were  both 
more  extensive  and  more  intensive  than  had  been  attempted  with 
the  normal  school  seniors. 

In  order  to  make  a  genuine  test  of  learning  abilities  with  the 
different  materials,  a  sufficient  number  of  successive  presentations 
was  made  with  the  subject  matter  so  as  to  enable  some,  at  least, 
of  the  students  to  command  all  of  it.  By  so  doing  it  was  hoped 
to  get  a  more  definite  idea  of  the  working  ability  of  the  students. 
The  tests  included  the  following  series: 

I.     Leanmig  Tests,  with,  Multiple  Presentation. 

1.  Learning  a  list  of  thirteen  nonsense  syllables  (selected 
from  the  list  given  on  page  102).  Five  trials  were  given  on  the  list 
before  it  was  certain  that  some  students  had  learned  the  entire  list 


106  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

2.  Learning  a  poem,  three  trials  required, — 

"I  see  tlie  lights  of  the  village 

Gleam  through  the  rain  and  the  mist, 
And  a  feeling  of  sadness  comes  o'er  me. 

That  my  soul  cannot  resist ; 
A  feeling  of  sadness  and  longing 

That  is  not  akin  to  pain, 
But  resembles  sorrow  only 

As  the  mist  resembles  rain." 

3.  Learning  six  historical  events  and  dates,  tv^^o  trials, — 

1.  1829   (Mexico  freed  her  slaves). . 

2.  1763   (Mason  and  Dixon's  Line  established). 

3.  1800   (IN'ational  capital  moved  from  Philadelphia  to 

Washington. 

4.  1610   (Hudson  discovered  Hudson  Bay,  and  was  there 

cast  adrift  and  lost). 

5.  1855    (Opening  of   railroad   across   the   Isthmus   of 

Panama). 
6.   1819    (First  steam  vessel  crossed  the  Atlantic,  sailing 
from  JSTew  York). 

4.  Learning  a  list  of  technical  terms,  with  meaning ;  two  lists, 
one  trial  each, — 

First  List.  Second  List, 

1.  aberration    (wandering).  1.  efficacious     (having    desired 

2.  entomology     (study    of    in-  effect). 

sects).  2.  malignant  (very  harmful). 

3.  regurgitate  (flow  back).  3.  hydrotropic  (water-seeking). 

4.  fulmination  (explosion).  4.  defoliate  (deprive  of  leaves). 

5.  geotropic     (turning    toward 

the  earth). 

6.  effeminate     (womanish    and 

weak) . 
(Each  term  used  in  a  sentence  to  give  meaning.) 

5.  Learning  a  list  of  historical  names,  one  trial, — 

1.  Abelard  (French  scholar). 

2.  Glaucus  (mythical  character;  torn  to  pieces  by  his  own 

horses). 

3.  Abimeleck  (Bible  king). 

4.  ITineveh  (ancient  Assyrian  king). 

5.  Polonius  (a  trickster  in  Shakespeare). 

6.  Xerxes  (a  Persian  king). 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.       107 

The  above  tests  were  all  given  on  the  afternoon  of  the  last 
school  day  preceding  Christmas.  In  the  forenoon  of  the  first 
school  day  after  'New  Year's  (and  following  an  eleven  day  vaca- 
tion) the  following  tests  were  made  with  these  students : 

II.     Memory  and  Relearning  Tests. 

1.  A  memory  test  with  no  assistance  whatever,  to  see  how 
many  of  the  thirteen  nonsense  syllables,  learned  eleven  days  before 
and  with  holiday  thoughts  in  between,  each  student  could  now 
produce.  Then  two  other  tests  on  relearning  the  list  of  thirteen 
syllables  under  the  same  conditions  of  presentation  as  were  used 
in  learning  the  list  before  the  holidays. 

2.  A  memory  test  on  the  poem,  with  no  assistance.  Then 
two  relearning  tests  on  the  poem  under  same  condition  of  present!  - 
tion  as  before. 

3.  A  memory  test  on  the  six  historical  dates,  with  events. 
Then  two  relearning  tests  under  the  usual  conditions. 

In  each  of  the  preceding  tests,  both  in  learning  and  in  re- 
learning, the  following  multiple  presentation  was  made:  (1)  see- 
ing; (2)  hearing;  (3)  seeing  and  reading  aloud  in  concert; 
(4)  seeing  and  copying  rapidly  on  paper. 

III.     Learning  Tests,  with  Single  Presentation. 

Finally,  two  series  of  three  tests  each,  one  series  with  visual 
presentation  alone,  and  the  other  with  auditory  presentation  alone, 
were  made  for  the  purpose  of  deriving  standards  of  variation  under 
such  forms  of  presentation.  Each  of  these  series  comprised  the 
following  tests : 

1.  Learning  a  list  of  four  historical  dates  or  names,  with 
identification  as  before ;  two  tests  (one  in  each  series)  of  one  trial 
each, — 

First  Series   (dates).  Second  Series  (names). 

1.  1815   (N'apoleon  defeated  at     1.  Alfonso  (King  of  Spain). 

Waterloo).  2.  Kruger     (President     South 

2.  1469   (Mouth  of  Congo  dis-  African  Kepublic). 

covered).  3.  Fortinbras  (IN'orman  King). 

3.  1799    (Washington  died).  4.  Abiathar  (Bible  name). 

4.  1823   (First  successful  tele- 

graph line  in  world,  built 
from  Baltimore  to  Wash- 
ington, by  Samuel  F.  B. 
Morse). 


108  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

2.  Learning  a  list  of  four  technical  terms,  with  meaning,  two 
tests  (one  in  each  series)  of  one  trial  each, — 

First  Series,  Second  Series. 

1.  miniature  (small  copy).  1.  lepidoptera     (scale    covered 

2.  orthoptera    (straight  wings). 

winged).  2.  malfeasance  (wrongdoing). 

3.  gratuitous  (without  cost).  3.  posthumous  (occurring  after 

4.  immanent  (dwelling  within).  death). 

4.  saponify    (to  make  into 
soap). 

(Each  term  was  used  in  a  sentence  to  give  meaning.) 

3.  Learning  a  list  of  eight  nonsense  syllables,  twg  tests  (one 
in  each  series)  of  one  trial  each.  (The  syllables  were  selected 
from  the  list  given  on  page  103.) 

In  deciding  upon  a  system  for  marking  this  wide  range  of 
tests,  many  difficulties  were  encountered.  It  was  the  dominant 
purpose  (1)  to  make  the  tests  simple,  yet  closely  following  the 
lines  of  ordinary  school  work;  and  (2)  to  grade  the  tests  without 
deviating  too  far  from  established  scientific  methods,  yet  again 
following  closely  the  methods  used  in  ordinary  school  work.  After 
considerable  deliberation,  the  following  plan  was  adopted  for 
marking  all  of  the  tests : 

1.  The  right  term,  or  fact,  or  meaning  counted  one  point. 

2.  The  right  order  of  the  term,  etc.,  counted  one  point. 

It  may  thus  be  seen  that  if  two  or  more  dates  (or  terms,  etc.) 
were  correctly  given,  but  their  places  interchanged,  they  were 
scored  one-half  value.  So,  too,  in  any  list,  say  of  nonsense  syllables, 
an  omitted  term  was  simply  counted  out  without  affecting  the 
score  of  succeeding  terms.  To  illustrate,  if  only  three  out  of  ten 
nonsense  syllables  were  given,  say  the  first,  the  fifth,  and  the  last 
of  the  list,  each  syllable  was  scored  two  points  if  the  three  were  in 
the  correct  order;  but  if  the  "last"  syllable  preceded  the  middle 
one,  we  may  say,  then  each  of  the  last  two  counted  only  one  point. 
Students  were  thus  not  required  to  mark  spaces  for  omitted  terms. 
In  no  case  was  a  part  of  a  term  counted,  but  each  term  was  counted 
either  right  or  wrong  as  a  whole. 

The  nonsense  syllable  tests  were  later  scored  according  to  the 
marking  system  employed  by  Cyril  Burt,'^  which  is  but  a  slight 


'British  Journal  of  Psychology,  Dec,  1909,  page  141 


STUDY  or  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,       109 

modification  of  the  Meumann  system.  The  purpose  of  this  double 
scoring  was  to  furnish  a  basis  for  comparison,  in  order  to  deter- 
mine whether  or  not  the  simple  system  here  used  for  all  tests  was 
deviating  too  far  from  the  usual  scientific  methods.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  here  that  the  Cyril  Burt  system  gave  a  record  in 
general  somewhat  higher  than  that  given  in  the  accompanying  table, 
but  that  in  no  case  did  it  make  a  significant  change  in  the  variabil- 
ity; and  variability  is  the  important  fact  in  these  tests  for  the 
purpose  in  hand. 

A  summary  of  the  scores  for  all  the  tests  is  given  in  the 
following  table.  The  ages  of  these  students  varied  from  fourteen 
years  and  three  months  to  sixteen  years  and  ten  months;  average 
age,  fifteen  years  and  nine  months.  The  grouping  follows  the  plan 
used  in  the  normal  school  table;  namely,  the  first  group  (thirteen 
students)  comprises  all  who  reached  their  best  results,  roughly 
speaking,  under  visual  presentation;  the  second  group  shows  stu- 
dents (sixteen)  who  succeeded  best  under  auditory  presentation; 
and  the  third  group  (eleven  students),  those  who  did  best  under 
the  motor  presentation  when  it  came  in. 


SUMMARY  OF  SCORES  REDUCED  TO  PER  CENT  AVERAGES. 

t 
I 

o 

C!ombined-fonn  Presentation. 

I.  Learning. 

II.  Relearning.                          | 

Syllables. 

Poem. 

Dates. 

Tech.  Terms. 

Syllables. 

Poem* 

Dates. 

1  950  =  73%'ll37  =  87%] 

2  1136  =  71      1414  =  88      1 

3  818  =  74        891=81      1 

208=93% 
488  =  93 
048  =  95 

1175=90% 
1404  =  88 
1026=93 

697  =  58% 
1427  =  89 
977  =  89 

571  =  71% 
405  =  68 
552  =  69 

848  =  71% 
1080  =  72 
759  =  69 

III.  One-form  Presentation. 

(*See  statement  on    page  112  with  reference  to 

Visual. 

Auditory. 

1 
2 
3 

650  =  54% 
589  =  39 
432  =  39 

501  =  42% 
842  =  56 
462  =  42 

ruling 

out  certain 

scores.) 

The  following  condensed  table  of  variations  reveals  the  sig- 
nificant facts  of  the  results  for  our  present  purpose : 


110 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 


TABLE    OF   VARIATIONS.       (PER    CENT   RECORD.) 


1st  trial 
2nd  " 

Syllables {  3rd    " 

4th    " 
5th    " 

1st  trial 

Poem \  2nd  " 

3rd    " 

Dates f  1st  trial 

2nd  " 

Technical  terms  f  Four . .  ,  . 

ISix 

Historical  names.  .Six 


Visual. 


Historical  names 
Technical  terms 
Non.  syllables  . . 


{Historical  names 
Technical  terms 
Non.  syllables  . 


MULTIPLE    PRESENTATION    (LEARNING). 


Score. 
Low.  High. 


73 

92 


39  100 
50  100 
43  100 


22  100 

55  100 

71  100 

60  100 

92  100 

75  100 

33  100 

75  100 


19 
19 
25 

31 
31 

25 


Total 
Average. 


45.05 
64.63 
80.60 
86.10 
87.68 

73.38 
90.83 
93.68 

88.30 
98. 6« 

96.25 
83.65 

89.33 


Mean 
Variation 


13.7 

16.61 

11.89 

9.98 

8.35 

20.56 
7.92 
5.34 

6.60 
2.70 

4.34 
10.19 

5.48 


Per  cent 
Variation 


30.42 
25.70 
14.74 
11.59 
9.52 

28.02 
8.72 
5.70 

7.47 
2.74 

4.51 
12.18 

6.13 


Average 


69 

46.68 

9.09 

19.47 

69 

44.55 

10.98 

24.65 

69 

40.74 

7.57 

18.58 

63 

48.16 

8.46 

17.57 

69 

49.76 

8.73 

17.54 

69 

44.68 

9.02 

20.19 

18.39 

14.15 

5.11 

8.35 

6.13 

1 10.43 


20.90 


)>  19.67 


18.44 


group  variations.     (learning.) 
(summaries.) 


Presentation. 


Visual 

Auditory 

Average  for  single  form . . . 

Non.  syllables 

Poem 

Multiple  \  Dates 

Technical  terms .... 
Historical  names . . . 

Average  for  multiple  form 


Group  1. 


54% 
42 

73 
87 
93 
90 
90 

86.6 


Group  2. 


39% 
56 

47.5 

71 
88 
93 
88 
89 

85.8 


Group  3. 


39% 
42 

40.5 

74 
81 
95 
93 
89 

86.4 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.       Ill 


RELEARNING   TESTS    (MULTIPLE    PRESENTATION). 


Syllables  /  1st  trial . 
\  2iid     "  , 


Dates. 


••{ 


2iid  " 

1st  trial 
2nd  " 


Score.  Total 

Low.  High.  Average. 


20  100 

46  100 

61  100 

78  100 

60  100 

83  100 


69.05 
82.71 

88 
95.23 

94.08 
98.50 


Mean     |  Per  cent 
Variation ;  Variation 


19.74 
13.81 

6.55 
3.89 

8.08 
2.53 


28.591 
16.70  / 

7.441 
4.09  f 


■^] 


8.59 
r 


Averages. 


22.65 


5.77 


8.59 


12.34 


ELEVEN    DAY   MEMORY   TESTS    (MULTIPLE    PRESENTATION). 


Syllables , 

Poem 

Dates.  .  . 


73 
51 
60 


27.26 
25.00 
18.84 


15.68 
13.82 
14.05 


57.52 
55.28 

74.58 


62.46 


Criticism  of  the  Tests. 

Referring  now  to  the  first  tests  with  the  nonsense  syllables,  it 
may  be  noted  that  the  per  cent  of  variability  is  very  high  for  the 
first  two  trials.  This  is  essentially  due  to  the  fact  that  such  work 
was  wholly  new  to  many  of  the  students,  while  others  knew  how 
to  proceed  to  advantage  from  the  beginning.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  the  first  trial  with  the  poem.  Since  the  variation  from 
this  cause  gradually  decreased  throughout  the  ten  series  of  tests, 
it  is  evident  that  the  per  cent  of  variability  in  the  earlier  tests 
was  relatively  too  high,  as  compared  with  the  one-form  presentation 
tests  which  were  the  last  tests  given.  The  one-form  presentation 
tests  were  given  at  the  point  of*  greatest  advantage  in  this  respect. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  there  is  no  evidence  of  fatigue  in  the  records, 
and  there  was  none  in  the  testing.  The  tests  began  at  nine  a.  m., 
and  interest  increased  as  the  tests  progressed. 

Again,  it  should  be  noted  that  whenever  some  of  the  students 
reach  a  score  of  100  per  cent,  further  testing  on  the  same  material 
is  done  with  less  possibility  of  variation.  At  two  points  in  the 
learning  tests  (the  last  trial  with  the  six  dates,  and  the  trial  with 
the  four  technical  terms)  the  possibility  of  variation  is  seriously 
crippled  from  this  cause.  It  was  at  first  thought  advisable  to  rule 
out  the  scores  of  the  two  trials  mentioned,  but  on  figuring  up 
averages  it  was  found  that  the  final  conclusions  would  not  be 
changed  if  the  two  tests  were  thrown  out,  and  since  they  tend  to 
counterbalance  the  high  variation  due  to  inexperience  in  the  early 
tests,  they  have  been  allowed  to  stand. 


112 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 


The  ruling  out  process  was  resorted  to,  however,  in  two 
instances,  (1)  since  the  poem  proved  so  attractive  to  sixteen 
students  (mainly  in  the  auditory  group)  that  they  thought  it  over 
during  vacation,  their  memory  and  relearning  records  were  re- 
jected. The  students  had  no  idea  that  the  tests  were  to  be  repeated 
after  the  holidays,  and  extreme  care  was  taken  to  find  all  who  had 
gone  over  the  material  during  vacation,  by  giving  ready  commenda- 
tion to  all  such  cases.  The  holiday  period  was  chosen  as  a  good 
time  to  check  this  tendency.  (2)  The  last  trial  in  relearning  the 
dates  was  ruled  out  for  the  reason  that  the  scores  were  nearly  all 
perfect,  hence  but  little  chance  for  variation. 

For  the  purpose  of  reaching  conclusions  as  to  the  relation  of 
the  kind  of  presentation  of  subject  matter  to  capacity,  we  may  now 
bring  together  the  main  results  from  our  two  tables : 

•  CONDENSED    STATISTICS    (VARIATIONS). 

NORMAL   SCHOOL   SENIORS    (64   STUDENTS). 


Presentation. 

Per  cent 
Variation. 

(Total 
Average.) 

Summaries. 

Group  Presentation. 

Average. 

Mean 
Variation 

Per  cent 
Variation 

One-form 

11.42 
8.02 
7.90 

(56.5,    63,       65) 
(71.5,    70,       76) 
(69  15,  68.75,  67.52) 

61.5 
72.5 

68.47 

3.33 
2.33 
1.91 

5.42 

3.22 

.64 

Two-form 

Three-form 

EIGHTH    GRADE    STUDENTS    (40). 


Presentation, 

Per  cent 
Variation. 

(Total 
Average.) 

Summaries. 

Group  Variation. 

Average 

Mean 
Variation 

Per  cent 
Variation 

One-form 

19.67 
10.43 

(48,     47.5,  40.5) 
(86.6,  85.8,  86.4) 

■ 

45.33 
86.3 

3.22 
.30 

7.10 
.35 

Three-form 

In  whatever  way  we  look  at  the  statistics  of  the  foregoing 
tables,  the  one  significant  fact  which  is  ever  intruding  is  that  a 
class  of  students  shows  far  greater  variation  in  ability  under  a 
one-form  than  under  a  two-fold  form  of  presentation,  and  least  of 
all  under  that  form  of  presentation  which  combines  the  visual, 
auditory,  and  motor  responses. 

Here  then  are  the  facts  which  bear  directly  upon  the  subject 
of  student  ability,  and  hence  throw  light  on  the  problem  of  grading 
and  promotion. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,       113 

C  oncliisions. 

1.  A  visual,  auditory,  or  motor  presentation  alone  does  not 
do  justice  to  half  the  members  of  a  class. 

2.  A  presentation  combining  any  two  forms  is  better,  other 
things  being  equal,  than  any  one-form  presentation,  yet  it  does  not 
do  justice  to  something  like  one-third  of  the  members  of  a  class. 

3.  l^othing  less  than  a  presentation  combining  all  three  of  the 
typical  responses,  visual,  auditory,  and  motor,  may  be  said  to  give 
adequate  opportunities  to  all  members  of  a  class. 

Part  III.     The  Unity  of  Formal  and  Dynamic  Aspects. 

We  are  now  in  position  to  state  more  definitely  what  the 
phrase,  "capacity  of  a  student,"  really  means ;  and  then  to  carry 
that  meaning  over  into  the  serious  problem  of  grading  and 
promotion. 

The  Capacity  of  a  Student. 

We  have  seen  that  there  are  two  essential  conditions  to  be 
realized  in  any  act  of  teaching;  namely,  (1)  the  learner  must  have 
a  stock  of  personal  experiences  sufficient  to  give  meaning  to  the 
given  subject  matter;  and  (2)  the  subject  matter  must  be  pre- 
sented in  such  a  way  as  to  call  forth  and  utilize  these  personal 
experiences.  The  capacity  of  the  student  may  therefore  be  char- 
acterized as  his  stock  of  available  personal  experiences,  plus  a 
favorable  presentation.  A  failure  to  meet  either  of  these  two 
conditions  may  actually  reduce  the  student's  capacity  to  zero  in 
any  given  attempt  at  learning. 

These  two  conditions,  therefore,  must  furnish  us  our  cues  to 
classification.  If  a  student  appears  in  a  class  whose  work  requires 
a  stock  of  personal  experiences  beyond  him,  that  student's  outlook 
is  essentially  hopeless,  and  reclassification  is  imperative.  So,  too, 
if  a  student  is  found  with  a  stock  of  working  experiences  beyond 
his  class,  he  should  be  promoted.  'I'he  first  requisite,  then,  in 
classifying  any  student  is  that  we  have  a  reasonably  good  knowl- 
edge of  his  stock  of  personal  experiences.  Ten  examination  ques- 
tions cannot  elicit  this  essential.  Indeed,  no  written  examination 
can  reveal  it.  Such  methods  may  tell  us  something,  but  nothing 
less  than  close  personal  touch  with  the  student  can  reveal  what  is 
needed.  The  question,  "What  grade  can  this  child  carry  ?"  should 
give  place  to  the  more  appropriate  question,  "How  can  this  school 
best  serve  this  child?"  In  brief,  we  have  relied  too  much  upon 
"system". 


114  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC, 

Since  we  aim  to  classify  a  student  on  the  basis  of  his  capacity, 
his  stock  of  personal  experiences  alone  is  not  an  infallible  guide. 
A  student  may  have  ample  personal  experiences,  yet  work  may  be 
presented  in  such  a  way  as  to  fail  to  call  out  those  experiences. 
We  have  all  seen  children  who  do  poorly  under  one  teacher,  and 
well  under  another,  and  perhaps  it  was  because  their  capacities  to 
do  the  work  as  offered  by  the  two  teachers  actually  varied.  We 
cannot  get  away  from  the  fact  that  the  student's  capacity  is  partly 
determined  by  the  teaching,  and  it  is  this  element  of  capacity  with 
which  this  study  is  specifically  concerned.  Before  a  student  is 
branded  as  actually  incompetent  to  carry  his  grade,  then,  we  must 
know  whether  or  not  he  has  been  given  a  favorable  opportunity  to 
respond.  The  proverbial  "examination"  sinks  into  a  wretched 
assumption  here,  and  a  close,  personal  relationship  with  the  stu- 
dent is  again  our  hope.  The  fact  is,  the  mere  designation  of  the 
place  where  a  lesson  is  to  be  found  in  a  book  may  be  sufficient 
opportunity  for  one  student;  while  a  most  careful  analysis  of  the 
lesson  may  be  required  by  another. 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  the  proper  classification  of  the 
student  is  a  matter  far  less  formal  than  our  ''systems"  of  grading 
and  promotion  indicate.  Indeed  the  system  is  but  an  incidental 
thing  in  the  real  problem,  and  it  is  a  hopeful  fact  that  as  time 
goes  on  we  are  learning  more  and  more  to  sacrifice  the  system  for 
the  sake  of  the  individual.  ''Systems  of  promotion  need  to  be 
fitted  to  individual  differences  in  capacity,  to  be  made  more 
flexible,  rather  than  to  be  made  easier  for  those  who  now  fail."^ 

Our  study  of  the  interrelation  of  student  capacity  and  the 
favorable  presentation  of  subject  matter  brings  out  another  very 
common  error  in  teaching;  namely,  since  the  teacher  commonly 
presents  subject  matter  in  a  way  suggested  by  her  own  ideational 
type,  such  a  presentation  is  probably  unsuited  to  something  like 
two-thirds  of  her  class.  There  is  no  question  but  that  this  wide- 
spread practice  is  responsible  for  an  alarming  per  cent  of  student 
failures  to  carry  grades;  and  thus  the  problems  of  demotion  and 
elimination  are  closely  related  to  bad  teaching. 

Our  profound  respect  for  system  has  plunged  us  into  still 
another  bad  practice.  ,  We  have  been  so  inclined  to  see  the  child 
from  the  standpoint  of  his  grade,  that  we  have  actually  been  guilty 
of  making  him  a  kind  of  tentative  specialist  in  the  subject  in 
which  he  seemed  to  have  the  least  ability ;  that  is,  if  he  seemed  to 
have  the  least  ability  in  arithmetic,  and  the  hignest  ability  in 

•Thorndike,  Thh  Psychological  Clinic,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  256,  257. 


STUDY  OF.  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.       115 

history,  we  have  had  him  spend  most  of  his  time  on  arithmetic 
and  the  least  amount  of  time  on  history,  in  order  to  make  him 
''carry  his  grade",  j^ow,  this  is  nothing  less  than  a  worship  of  the 
grade,  or  system,  and  it  is  contrary  to  the  child's  best  interests, 
and  therefore  to  the  real  purpose  of  the  school.  We  are  now 
demanding  that  the  student  be  advanced  by  the  subject,  rather 
than  by  the  grade,  for  we  have  seen  quite  enough  of  the  lockstep 
evils.  As  ex-President  Eliot  has  said,  "We  have  reaped  now  in 
the  public  school  system  all  the  benefits  of  system  and  uniformity, 
and  it  is  high  time  to  superinduce  in  the  American  schools  the 
opposite  benefits  of  flexibility  and  variety." 

It  is  a  hopeful  and  significant  fact  that  the  point  system'^  of 
classification  and  promotion  is  now  making  its  advent.  Under 
this  plan,  however,  a  student  should  be  permitted,  if  need  be,  to 
belong  to  several  groups  or  grades  at  the  same  time.  When  he 
has  gained  the  requisite  number  of  points  in  history,  he  should 
be  promoted  in  history,  and  so  on,  and  not  held  back  for  a  given 
number  of  points  in  each  subject.  His  diploma  should  come  with 
the  required  number  of  points.  A  student  should  move  as  rapidly 
in  one  subject  as  his  ability  permits,  and  as  slowly  in  another 
subject  as  his  capacity  requires.  We  have  begun  to  realize  that 
there  are  no  sine  qua  nan  subjects,  for  experience  has  shown  us 
that  individuals  can  and  do  succeed  in  spite  of  deficiencies  in  the 
old  "essentials",  or  "three  E's".  Moreover,  we  have  found  that 
the  individual  may  have  a  private  road  to  any  subject. 

The  fact  is,  broadly  stated,  we  are  living  theoretically,  at 
least,  in  the  day  of  immanence.  The  "inner  gift"  is  the  sacred 
thing,  and  all  our  forces  are  being  organized  to  the  end  of  bringing 
out  the  best  there  is  within.  Education,  religion,  government,  and 
all  other  influences,  must  ultimately  free  the  ability,  the  potential 
good  within.  There  is  nothing  now  sacred  where  the  inner  man 
is  not,  and  anything  is  sacred  just  in  the  degree  that  it  receives 
the  inner  sanction.  We  shall  hardly  stop  until  this  belief  has 
become  reality  in  our  schools.  Already  a  Miinsterberg^  can  say, 
"INTo  leaminoj  and  no  training  of  the  human  mind  counts,  if  it 
does  not  find  an  emotional  willingness,"  and  school  methods  are 
rapidly  being  remolded  to  conform  to  the  interests  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 'Not  uniformity,  but  variety  of  abilities  is  what  we  are 
now  to  seek.  In  brief,  our  most  serious  problem  is  to  reach  the 
individual. 


^The  Grading  and  Promotion  of  Pupils.  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  40,  pp  375-386. 
•"Psychology  and  the  Teacher."  p.  263. 


116  TEE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

All  this  points  to  tlie  fact  that  the  old  lockstep  evils  are  being 
remedied  in  a  larger  way  than  any  system  of  grading  and  promo- 
tion can  reveal;  but  the  formal  step,  the  "military  drill"  aspect 
of  grading,  is  soon  to  disappear,  and  "system"  is  going  to  have  its 
control  very  much  limited.  Systems  we  must  have,  but  we  want 
less  obtrusive,  less  dominating,  and  more  flexible  systems.  E^o 
system  should  longer  be  permitted  to  pervert  the  real  purposes  of 
the  school,  but  any  system  may  exist  as  an  elastic  and  modest 
means  of  serving  the  needs  of  the  individual. 

General  Summary  and  Conclusions, 
By  way  of  summary,  we  may  state  the  following  conclusions : 

1.  The  vital  thing  in  any  case  of  grading  or  promotion  is 
personal  acquaintance  with  the  ability  of  the  student. 

2.  Student  ability  is  not  a  fixed  and  unvarying  quantity,  but 
it  may  be  characterized  as  the  student's  stock  of  available  personal 
experiences,  plus  a  favorable  presentation  of  subject  matter. 

3.  Inadequate  experience  with  the  real  capacities  of  students, 
together  with  one-sided  presentations  of  subject  matter  which  are 
suggested  by  the  teacher's  own  ideational  type,  is  responsible  for 
many  school  failures,  and  hence  adds  much  weight  to  the  already 
heavy  problem  of  regrading. 

4.  A  visual,  auditory,  or  motor  presentation  alone  does  not 
do  justice  to  half  the  members  of  an  ordinary  class ;  and  nothing 
less  than  a  presentation  favoring  all  three  of  the  typical  modes  of 
response  may  be  safely  relied  upon  in  group  teaching. 

5.  Too  much  emphasis  is  now  placed  upon  system,  and  we 
are  not  guided  enough  by  the  needs  of  the  individual  students. 

6.  The  lockstep  systems,  which  classify  by  grades,  should  be 
superseded  as  far  as  possible  by  classification  into  homogeneous 
groups,  varying  from  subject  to  subject,  so  that  we  may  have 
less  grade  dominance  and  more  respect  for  individual  needs  and 
capacities. 

7.  Classification  and  promotion  should  be  made  on  the  basis 
of  personal  acquaintance  with  the  abilities  and  needs  of  the  student 
in  specific  subjects,  rather  than  on  the  basis  of  the  formal  exami- 
nation covering  any  or  all  subjects. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1.  Aypes.: — Some   Factors  Affecting   Grade   Distribution,   The   Psy.  Clin., 

Vol.  II,  pp.  121-133. 

2.  ATREs: — A  Simple  System  for  Discovering  Some  Factors  Influencing  Non- 

promotion,  The  Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  IV,  No.  7,  Dec.  1910,  pp.  189-192. 


STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION,       117 

3.  Ayres: — Irregular  Attendance — ^A  Cause  of  Retardation,  The  Psy.  Clin., 

Vol.  Ill,  pp.  1-8. 

4.  Ayres: — Laggards  in  Our  Schools;  N.  Y.,  Charities  Pub.  Com.,  1909,  p.  143. 

5.  Ayres: — ^The  Money  Cost  of  the  Repeater,  The  Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  Ill,  pp. 

49-57. 

6.  Arnold  : — Classification  and  Educ.  of  Afflicted  Children,  The  Psy.  Clin., 

Vol.   II,   180-191. 

7.  Bagley  :— Classroom  Management    (Batavia  System),  pp.  214-224;  N.  Y. 

Macmillan  &  Co. 

8.  Barnard  : — The  Seattle  Plan  of  Promotion  and  Classification,  Com,  of  Ed. 

Report,  1898-99,  pp.  335-341. 

9.  Blewett: — Svstem  of  Grading  Schools  in  St.  Louis,  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  VIII, 

pp.  387-388. 
-^    10.  Boone: — ^The  Lockstep  in  the  Public  School,    Proc.  of  N.  E.  A.,  1903,  pp 
408-412. 

11.  Boykin: — Class  Intervals  in  City  Public  Schools,  Com.  of  Ed.  Report,  1891, 

pp.  981-1011. 

12.  Bryan: — A  Method  for  Determining  the  Extent  and  Causes  of  Retardation 

in  a  City  School  System,  The  Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  I,  41-52. 

13.  Buchanan: — Grading  and  Promotion,  Proc.  of  N.  E.  A.,  1900,  pp.  128-137. 
14.  Burk:— Promotion  of  Bright  and  Slow  Pupils,  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  XIX,  296-302. 

15.  Classification  and  Promotion  of  Pupils,  Com.  of  Educ.  Report,  1892,  pp. 

601-636,  and  1899,  pp.  303-357. 

16.  City  School  Reports  of  Cambridge,  Mass.;  Portland,  Oregon;  Santa  Barbara, 

Cal.;  et  cU. 

17.  Cogswell: — ^The  Cambridge  Experiment,  Proc.  of  N.  E.  A.,  1894,  pp.  333- 

342. 

18.  Cornman: — Size  of  Classes  and  School  Progress,  The  Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  Ill, 

pp.  206-212. 

19.  Cornm.ajn: — The  Retardation  of  the  Pupils  of  Five  City  School  Systems, 

The  Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  245-257. 

20.  DuTTON  AND  Snedden: — Administration  of  Public  Education  in  the  U.  S., 

page  341;  N.  Y.,  Macmillan  &  Co. 

21.  Falkner: — Elimination  of  Pupils  from  School,  The  Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.   II, 

pp.  255-275. 

22.  Falkner: — The  Fundamental  Expression  of  Retardation,  The  Psy.  Clin., 

Vol.  IV,  No.  8,  January,  1911,  pp.  213-220. 

23.  Falkner: — Some   Further  Considerations   upon   the   Retardation  of  the 

Pupils  of  Five  aty  School  Systems,  The  Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  II,  pp.  57-74 
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25.  Gayler:  Retardation  and  Elimination  in  Graded  and  Rural  Schools,  The 

Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  IV,  No.  2,  April  1910,  pp.  40-45. 

26.  Gayler: — A  Further  Study  of  Retardation  in  Illinois,  The  Psy.  Clin., 

Vol.  IV,  No.  3,  May,  1910,  pp.  79-82. 

27.  Gilbert: — Gradation  and  Promotion  of  Pupils,  Ed.  Found.,  Vol.  IV,  pp. 

718-726. 

28.  Greenwood: — Shortening  the  Time  in  the  Elementary  School,  Ed.  Rev., 

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29.  Harris:— Annual  Report  of  the  St.  Louis  Public  Schools,  1871-2,  pp.  81-82. 

30.  Harris: — ^The  Development  of  the  Short  Interval  System  in  St.  Louis,  Com 

of  Ed.  Report,  1898-9,  pp.  303-330. 

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32.  Heilman:— The  Need  for  Special  Classes  in  the  Public  Schools,  The  Psy. 

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33.  Huysson: — Gradation,  Promotion,  and  Individual  Instruction,  Ed. Found., 

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34.  Jackman:— The  School  Grade  a  Fiction,  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  456-473. 

35.  Jones: — A  Concrete  Example  of  the  Value  of  Individual  Teaching,  The 

Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  II,  pp.  196-203. 

36.  Land  an: — Nervose  Schulkinder,  1902. 

37.  Miles: — ^A  Comparison  of  Elementary  and  High  School  Grades,  Fed.  Sem., 

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118  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CLINIC. 

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39.  Johnson: — Irregular  Attendance  in  the  Primary  Grades,  The  Psy.  Clin., 

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41.  Moses: — Zur    Entwicklung    der    Schulorganisation    auf    psychologischer 

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42.  Moses: — Schulhygienische  Betrachtungen  liber  Gliederung  und  Organisa- 

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43.  Parkinson: — Promotion,  Accelerated  and  Retarded,  Ed.,  19,  pp.  152-157. 
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N.  E.  A.,  1898,  pp.  423-432. 

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48.  Rodel: — Zur  Frage  der  Organisation  der  Volksschule  in  Mannheim,  1899. 

49.  Rosier: — The  Graded  School — Its  Strength  and  its  Weakness,  Rev.  of  Ed., 

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50.  Russell: — Exceptional  Children  in  School,  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  431-442. 

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52.  Search:— The  Pueblo  Plan  of  Individual  Teaching,  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.    VIII, 

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54.  Shearer:— The  Elizabeth  Plan  of  Grading,  Proc.  of  N.  E.  A.,  1898,  pp.  441- 

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55.  Squire: — Our  Responsibility  for  Retardation,  The  Psy.  Clin.,  Vol.  IV, 

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56.  SiCKiNGER : — Zur  Frage  der  Organisation  der  Volksschule  in  Mannheim,  1899. 

57.  Sickinger: — Ein  padagogisches  Gutachten  Herbarts  und  der  Mannheimer 

Schulorganisation,    1900. 

58.  Sickinger: — Die  Neuorganisation  der  Volksschule  in  Mannheim, 1899. 

59.  Sickinger: — Jahresberichte   der    Stadtischen   Volksschule  in  Mannheim, 

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60.  Sold  an: — Shortening  the  Period  of  Elementary  Schooling,  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol. 

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61.  Thorndike:— The  Elim.  of  Children  from  School,  U.  S.  Bur.  Ed.  Bui.  No.  4, 

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62.  Thorndike: — Pfomotion,   Retardation  and  Elimination,THE   Psy.  Clin., 

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63.  Twitmyer:— Clinical  Studies    of    Retarded    Children,    The   Psy.    Clin., 

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64.  Van  Sickle: — The  Plan  of  the  North  Side  Schools    of  Denver,  Proc.  of 

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65.  Van  Sickle: — Provision  for  Exceptional  Children  in  Public  Schools,  The 

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66.  Young:— Grading  and  Classification,  Proc.  of  N.  E.  A.,  1893,  pp.  83-86. 

67.  Wagner: — Retardation  and  Elimination  in  the  Schools  of  Mauch  Chunk 

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68.  White: — Promotion  and  Examination  in  Graded  Schools,  U.  S.  Bur.  of  Ed., 

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70.  Witmer:— Retardation  through  Negect  in  Children  of  the  Rich,  The  Psy. 

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71.  Woodward: — ^When  and  Why  Pupils  Leave  School,  etc.,  Com.  of  Ed.  Re- 

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STUDY  OF  GRADING  AND  PROMOTION.       119 

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74.  Bernstein  and  Bugdanoff: — Experimente  iiber  das  Verhalten  derMerk- 

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79.  Brittain: — A  Study  in  Imagination,  Ped.  Sent.,  Vol.  XIV,  1907. 

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81.  Burt: — Experimental  Tests  of  General  Intelligence, Bri^.  Jaur.  of  Psychology, 

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82.  Calkins  : — A  Study  of  Immediate  and  of  Delayed  Recall  of  the  Concrete  and 

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84.  Colvin:— Ideational  Types  of  School  Children,  Ped.  Sem.,  Vol.  XVII,  1909. 

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at  Irregular  Intervals  of  Time,  Amer.  Jour  Psy.,  Vol.  XVIII,  1907. 

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normal  school  class  tests  of  learninq  abilities  with  familiar 

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8 

5 

8 

21 

8 

11 

12  31 

41 

5 

5 

7 

17 

7 

6 

8 

21 

6 

6 

8 

20 

8 

9 

7 

24 

13 

10 

11  34 

42 

7 

6 

6 

19 

6 

8 

7 

21 

4 

9 

8 

21 

7 

9 

8 

24 

14 

9 

9  32 

43 

6 

2 

8 

16 

7 

6 

6 

19 

7 

6 

5 

18 

8 

6 

9 

23 

12 

13 

10  35 

44 

6 

5 

7 

18 

8 

5 

7 

20 

6 

5 

8 

19 

7 

9 

7 

23 

12 

11 

10  33 

45 

5 

5 

5 

15 

8 

9 

5 

22 

6 

5 

6 

17 

8 

6 

8 

22 

13 

14 

8  35 

46 

6 

7 

5 

18 

7 

7 

5 

19 

7 

6 

6 

19 

8 

8 

7 

23 

11 

12 

12  35 

47 

4 

7 

7 

18 

7 

8 

8 

23 

7 

7 

6 

20 

7 

7 

9 

23 

11 

9 

11  31 

♦♦353 

442 

403 

480 

693 

48 

5 

5 

6 

16 

7 

4 

6 

17 

8 

7 

7 

22 

7 

9 

9 

25 

12 

12 

11  35 

49 

4 

7 

5 

16 

3 

5 

7 

15 

9 

8 

9 

26 

9 

6 

8 

23 

13 

10 

13  36 

50 

7 

3 

4 

14 

6 

5 

6 

17 

8 

7 

6 

21 

8 

6 

9 

23 

9 

9 

7  25 

51 

5 

4 

5 

14 

5 

6 

4 

15 

7 

6 

8 

21 

8 

7 

6 

21 

9 

10 

11  30 

52 

4 

6 

5 

15 

6 

4 

5 

15 

7 

7 

8 

22 

9 

6 

8 

23 

10 

11 

13  34 

53 

7 

5 

6 

18 

6 

6 

7 

19 

9 

7 

7 

23 

8 

8 

9 

25 

13 

11 

9  33 

54 

5 

6 

6 

17 

7 

8 

4 

19 

6 

7 

9 

22 

9 

6 

8 

23 

12 

13 

12  37 

55 

6 

4 

8 

18 

5 

7 

6 

18 

7 

8 

8 

23 

8 

9 

7 

24 

11 

9 

10  30 

56 

5 

8 

4 

17 

6 

8 

5 

19 

6 

8 

8 

22 

9 

8 

6 

23 

12 

11 

6  29 

57 

7 

6 

.  7 

20 

5 

8 

7 

20 

9 

8 

8 

25 

8 

9 

9 

26 

11 

12 

11  34 

58 

6 

4 

4 

14 

5 

7 

4 

16 

7 

7 

7 

21 

8 

8 

6 

22 

10 

9 

12  31 

59 

5 

6 

6 

17 

5 

7 

7 

19 

7 

8 

8 

23 

9 

9 

7 

25 

13 

12 

8  33 

60 

6 

4 

8 

18 

4 

6 

6 

16 

8 

9 

6 

23 

8 

7 

8 

23 

12 

10 

13  35 

61 

6 

4 

6 

16 

5 

6 

7 

18 

7 

7 

7 

21 

6 

8 

8 

22 

11 

9 

7  27 

62 

7 

5 

5 

17 

4 

6 

8 

18 

7 

8 

6 

21 

7 

10 

6 

23 

12 

8 

14  34 

63 

7 

2 

8 

17 

5 

7 

6 

18 

8 

6 

8 

22 

8 

7 

9 

24 

11 

12 

14  37 

64 

6 

5 

4 

15 

6 

6 

5 

17 

6 

6 

8 

20 

7 

8 

7 

22 

8 

11 

12  31 

***279 

296 

378 

397 

551 

EIGHTH  GRADE 

LEARNIpffi 

(per  cen 

COMBINED-PORM  PRESENTATION. 

LEARNINa. 

SyUables  (13). 

Poem. 

Dates  (6). 

Tech.  Terms. 

— 

1 

8, 
g 

1 

Is 

i 

CM 

t 

4 

35   < 

^     "S"      i     1 

1-H       (N       CO      ■< 

i 

■§    1 

4 

o 
6    ^ 

II 

1 

39  +  54  +  85  +  92  +  96  =  73 

94  +  97  +  97  =  96 

92+100=  96 

100+100=100 

92 

2 

39 

62 

62 

77 

77   63 

90   94   94   93 

92 

100   96 

100 

92   96 

100 

3 

73 

88 

88 

92 

92   87 

90   92   92   91 

67 

100   84 

96 

92   94 

92 

4 

58 

62 

92 

96 

92   80 

88  100   92   93 

100 

100  100 

92 

75   84 

92 

5 

15 

35 

85 

88 

96   64 

22   67   71   53 

75 

92   84  1  94 

50   72 

75 

6 

58 

70 

73 

73 

92   73 

97   97   97   97 

92 

100   96  100 

100  100 

92 

7 

46 

54 

77 

100 

100   75 

94  100  100   98 

83 

100   92  100 

92   96 

92 

8 

54 

92 

96 

100 

100   88 

94   97   97   96 

92 

100   96  i  100 

92   96 

92 

9 

27 

39 

81 

58 

70   55 

28   92   92   71 

75 

92   84 

83 

75   79 

83 

10 

54 

92 

92 

92 

85   83 

80  100  100   93 

100 

100  100 

94 

83   89 

92 

11 

39 

35 

46 

73 

88   56 

94   90   90   91 

92 

100   96 

100 

92   96 

92 

■  12 

54 

73 

92 

92 

88   80 

90   97   88   92 

83 

100   92'  94 

88   91 

83 

13 

35 

77 

85 

81 

88   73 
*950 

33   81   88   73 
1137 

83 

100   92 
1208 

88 

75   82 
1175 

92 
1169 

14 

23 

39 

92 

88 

96   68 

100   97  100   99 

92 

100   96 

94 

83   89 

100 

15 

62 

88 

100 

96 

92   88 

65   86   97   83 

92 

92   92 

100 

88   94 

92 

16 

54 

81 

96 

100 

100   86 

100  100  100  100 

92 

92   92 

100 

92   96 

92 

17 

70 

85 

77 

77 

88   79 

100  100  100  100 

92 

100   96 

100 

67   84 

88 

18 

19 

54 

85 

81 

81   64 

40   97   97   78 

75 

92   84 

100 

42   71 

9: 

19 

58 

46 

100 

96 

100   80 

47   94   97   79 

92 

100   96 

100 

92   96 

9_ 

20 

39 

70 

77 

81 

88   71 

92   94   94   93 

92 

100   96 

100 

92   96 

75  1 

21 

73 

88 

92 

96 

88   87 

90   94  '  94   93 

92 

100   96 

100 

100  100 

QO 

22 

35 

62 

81 

70 

70   63 

57   55   83   65 

60 

92   76 

75 

33   54 

75 

23 

23 

54 

39 

70 

58   49 

65   80   80   75 

92 

100   96 

94 

63   79 

92' 

24 

39 

43 

39 

85 

77   57 

94   97  100   97 

83 

100   92 

100 

92  .  96 

92 

25 

46 

43 

70 

96 

96   70 

67   90   92   83 

83 

100   92 

88 

75   82 

83 

26 

39 

54 

81 

81 

85   68 

90  100  100   97 

92 

100   96 

94 

83   89 

99 

27 

62 

88 

92 

92 

92   85 

100  100  100  100 

100 

100  100 

100 

92   96 

9i 

28 

27 

39 

58 

70 

43   47 

55   61   86   67 

83 

100   92 

88 

83   86 

8i 

29 

43 

43 

96 

94 

94   74 
**1136 

90   97   97   95 
1414 

92 

100   96 

1488 

100 

92   96 
1404 

m 

1427 

30 

23 

54 

85 

96 

100   72 

73   90   94   79 

92 

100   96 

100 

92   96 

75 

31 

0 

27 

46 

96 

88   49 

35   67   97   66 

83 

100   92 

100 

83   92 

9S 

32 

39 

77 

85 

100 

100   80 

35   94   97   75 

92 

100   96 

100 

100  100 

95 

33 

46 

92 

96 

92 

85   82 

65   90   92   82 

92 

100   96 

94 

83   89 

91 

34 

.54 

88 

85 

88 

92   81 

88.100   92   93 

92 

100   96 

100 

92   96 

8J 

35 

39 

85 

81 

50 

77   66 

43   86   86   68 

83 

100   92 

94 

83   89 

91 

36 

62 

70 

77 

88 

92   78 

97  100  100   99 

92 

100   96 

100 

92   96 

91 

37 

62 

70 

96 

96 

96   84 

43   90   90   74 

100 

100  100 

100 

83   92 

10( 

38 

54 

62 

70 

66 

77   66 

70   90   97   86 

92 

100   96 

100 

92   96 

71 

39  • 

62 

77 

81 

85 

92   79 

73   94   90   86 

92 

100   96 

94 

88   91 

9S 

40 

1 

58 

73 

96 

100 

96   81 

***818 

67   86   97   83 
891 

92 

92   92 
1048 

94 

83   89 
1026 

91 
977 

J 

3tJM  AVERA& 

(  1- 

13)     — *950=73%    1137  =  87% 

1208  =  93% 

1175=  90C 

7o       1169= 

(14-29)    — **1136  =  71%    1414  =  88% 

1488  =  93% 

1404  =  88'^ 

^0       1427- 

(30-40)    — * 

**818  =  74%    891  = 

81% 

1048  =  9 

5% 

1026  =  93^ 

^        977= 

and  releahninq  tests. 
.  record) 


Rblearning. 


SyUables  (13). 


Poem. 


27  +  35  +  81 

15  46   62 

50  85  100 

20  50   58 

23  96  100 

73  100  100 

0  92  100 

23  73 

8  35 

0  62 

8  77 

15  70 


92 
70 

77 
88 

77 


48 
41 
78 
43 
73 
91 
64 
63 
38 
46 
58 
54 


40 
40 
43 
31 
0 
40 

40 
8 
15 
43 
8 
20 
46 
23 
43 


absent 


96  100 

85  100 

77  100 

88  92 

40  58 

54  46 
absent 

88  96 

62  77 

35  62 

58  85 

88  100 

88  85 

96  96 

35  46 

92  92 


27 

34 

51 

*94 

25 

*100 

*100 

*92 

51 

0 

34 

4 


+  97 
88 
80 

100 
83 

100 

100 
97 
92 

100 
92 
86 


+  97 

94 

100 

100 

100 

100 

100 

97 

97 

97 

97 

94 


697 

79  *97 
75  *83 
*100 
*100 
14 
20 


73 
70 
33 

47 

75 
49 
37 
62 
65 
64 


*83 
27 
29 
*97 
0 
*94 
79  I  *92 
35  I  34 


100  100 

100  100 

100  100 

100  100 

97  100 

97  100 

100  100 

78  94 

90  97 

100  100 

90  94 

97  100 

100  100 

80  78 


80 
66 
74 
61 

571 


Dates  (6) . 


13  +  100+100 

42  100  100 

0  100  92 

17  100  100 

8  100  100 

60  100  100 

100  100 

67  100 

92  92 

83  92 

100  100 

100  100 


76  *97  100  100 


100  100 
20   50 


70 
92 
46 
58 
88 
88 
43 
62 
54 


92 
96 
77 
81 
88 
92 
62 
77 
88 


919 

80 
23 
75 
74 
48 
60 
74 
77 
44 
46 
52 

653 


*67 

0 

27 

51 

51 

34 

*97 

*83 

0 

10 

27 


100  100 
61   83 


33  100  100 

60  100  100 

21  100  100 

4  92  100 

2  92  100 


8  100  100 


=  71 
81 
64 
72 
69 
87 
68 
79 
63 
58 
68 
68 

848 


78 
87 
74 
65 
65 
69 


One-form  Presentatic 


Visual. 


is 


5S 


+  56  +  31  =  50 

63  50  56 

63  44  54 

63  56  63 

56  44 

63  31 

56  56  58 

63  69  63 

56  25  48 

69  31 

63  31 


50 
50 


54 
50 


56  50  54 


650 


Auditory. 


^-    g3  |« 

la  s.« 


Id  eS 


o3 


44  +  50+38= 

=  4t 

38 

44 

38 

4. 

50 

38 

44 

4^ 

38 

44 

50 

41 

44 

38 

38 

4) 

31 

44 

31 

35 

44 

38 

38 

4) 

31 

44 

50 

42 

50 

38 

31 

41 

44 

38 

50 

44 

63 

38 

25 

42 

38 

50 

50 

46 

501 


50  44  31  42  63  63  56  61 


50  44  44 
50  38  50 


46 
44 


63  69  63  65 
56  63  69  63 
56  56  50  54 


44  50  38  44 

31  44  38  38  i  56  50  63  56 

38  44  44  42  56  44  63  53 


88 
94 


97 
97 


88  100 

94  97 

100  100 

100  100 

97  100 

86  94 

78  88 


4 

100 

100 

68 

44 

38 

31 

38 

i  50 

68 

50  54 

66 

30 

100 

100 

77 

41 

19 

38 

34 

50 

56 

56  54 

V2 

50 

100 

100 

83 

38 

31 

31 

38 

56 

50 

38  48 

16 

100 

100 

72 

25 

31 

38 

31 

56 

68 

50  56 

bl 

0 

6V 

100 

56 

44 

25 

44 

38 

68 

69 

44  59 

2b 

81 

100 

69 

38 

38 

38 

38 

56 

50 

50  52 

0 

100 

100 

67 

50 

44 

44 

46 

56 

68 

56  58 

64 

16 

100 

100 

72 

38 

50 

25 

38 

a8 

69 

31  54 

33 

100 

100 

78 

56 

25 

31 

37 

63 

63 

38  55 

405 

1080 

589 

842 

12 

92 

100 

68 

38 

44 

44 

42 

44 

50 

44  46 

48  1  16 

100 

100 

72 

19 

31 

38 

29 

25 

81 

38  31 

I] 

25 

100 

100 

75 

44 

38 

38 

40 

88 

68 

31  44 

81 

8 

60 

100 

56 

50 

31 

44 

42 

88 

44 

50  44 

80 

16 

100 

100 

72 

44 

50 

38 

44 

44 

88 

50  44 

V5 

33 

100 

100 

78 

44 

38 

44 

42 

44 

44 

38  42 

60 

92 

100 

84 

44 

25 

38 

36 

50 

44 

31  42 

16 

100 

92 

69 

44 

31 

56 

44 

50 

88 

50  46 

66 

0 

100 

100 

67 

31 

44 

50 

42 

44 

56 

31  44 

67 

4 

83 

83 

57 

31 

38 

44 

38 

44 

88 

44  42 

64 

16 

75 

92 

61 

38 

31 

31 

33 

31 

50 

31  37 

552 

759 

432 

462 

10% 


697  =  58%  571  =  71% 
919=61%  405  =  68% 
653  =  59%       552  =  69% 


848  =  71% 

1080=72% 

759=69% 


650=54%, 
589=39%) 
432  =  39% 


501  =  42% 
842=56%, 
462=42% 


*  Thought  poem  over  since  learning,  and  record  rejected. 


2.'67 


-fHV.UT.-feB 


^fAMPHLET  BINDER 

Syrocuse 
Sfockton, 


